Parallel Worlds: Summer Nights
by blissfulnightsecret
Summary: Sequel to Parallel Worlds. The summer between fifth and sixth year. Novella length. Allegra has adventures at home and away.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This is a sequel to Parallel Worlds, it's more of a one 1.5 than 2, so I hope you enjoy it. Once again, some of the characters are slightly different from canon._

Chapter 1

Allegra landed on her butt in a fireplace in the Ministry of Magic's Atrium. Everyone else landed perfectly on their feet and a few of the less serious passersby grinned at her. Allegra stood up and moved out of the way for her father who landed on his feet and walked out into the Atrium flawlessly without a speck of powder on him.

"This way," Michael put a hand on Allegra's back and steered her in the direction of the lifts. It was quite a contrast from the last time she had arrived, the thick crowds of people had returned. Allegra people-watched until she realised most of them were watching her and her father, too.

"Hey isn't that ... it's the girl ... oh my ... I wouldn't have thought that ..." Allegra put her head down and followed her dad into a lift and passed down three levels. Allegra, her father and a short old lady fell out and walked down dimly lit corridor with the same black tiles as the Department of Mysteries.

"It's just through here." Michael pushed the dark door open for Allegra and they slipped inside.

Inside it was not as Allegra had expected. She had imagined that she was going to step into a small, dark office with just a mousy looking man inside. Wrong. The room she had stepped into was huge, the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. And it was the lightest place she'd seen throughout the whole Ministry. There was a strange collection of people inside, including a lot of Ministry Officials who were all dressed the same way. Doors lined the back wall and in front of each door was a small booth. Some of the booths had an attendant sat at a desk at the front of it.

"Come on, you have to walk through there," Michael pointed at an archway and pushed Allegra in front of him. Allegra walked through and a voice said, "Clean." Michael walked through the archway and it repeated itself.

"What is that?"

"It searches you to make sure you're not smuggling anything you shouldn't be." Michael replied without looking at her, he was searching for something. "Oh! There we go." He started to stride off through the people waiting and Allegra weaved to follow. He stopped in front of one of the booths and the man behind the desk looked at Allegra.

"Allegra Boone?"

Allegra nodded. Her dad turned her by the shoulders and pulled her in for a hug.

"Tell Charlie I send my love. Have fun won't you?" He put her at arm's length again, "and _keep out of trouble_. Remember, you're in a different country but that doesn't necessarily mean you're untouchable." Allegra nodded again. "Good. Don't get Charlie into trouble, either."

"Are we ready to go?" The attendant asked pleasantly.

"Yes, I think so."

"And someone will be meeting you there?"

"Yes," Michael answered for her, "he should be there already."

"Alright then, follow me." Allegra walked under another archway and it said. "Allegra Boone, female, sixteen, British." Allegra smiled apprehensively at her father and followed the man through the door behind the booth. Once the door was closed he smiled at her reassuringly. "I'm Daniel."

"Hi, Daniel."

"Have you ever apparated abroad before?" Allegra shook her head. "Alright then, apparating across countries is a little different. The squeezing feeling is more intense and it also lasts for longer. If you find yourself out of breath tell me and I will stop as soon as possible."

"Okay."

"Have you got your luggage in a secure pocket?" Allegra nodded and pointed to her zipped up pocket.

"Right then, hold my arm ... ready in, 3, 2, 1 -" The floor was pulled from under her and she felt like a boa constrictor had wrapped itself around her and was doing it's best to make her it's dinner. Allegra gasped to breathe as the air whipped past her. In normal apparation you barely had time to think before you arrived at your destination, but Allegra had time to think. She had time to count full seconds. Hell, she probably would have had time for a coffee. Just as she struggled to catch her breath everything slowed and the ground was there. Everything became still and Allegra got a head rush, if Daniel hadn't been holding onto her she would have fallen to the floor in a dizzy spell. Instead the world just rocked around her and she felt sick.

"Congratulations, Allegra. Welcome to Romania," Daniel opened the door of the small room and led her out into the Romanian Ministry's Travel Office. It wasn't anywhere near as grand as England's, unsurprisingly. It was a room about the size of her living room with only six booths, three on either side. Charlie was stood in the middle area grinning at her. Allegra thanked Daniel for his help and ran towards him.

"Charlie!" She cheered as a similar archway to what she had walked through minutes ago listed who she was in Romanian. Charlie scooped her up in a hug that would have been hard had it not been for the traveling she'd just done.

"Ready to apparate again?" He grinned.

"Give me a few minutes," she said flatly. She got those few minutes because you couldn't apparate inside the Ministry so they had to walk their way out first. The Romanian Ministry was quite underwhelming. They walked out of the door and into a dark hall way with brown walls and wooden floors. The lift was waiting, and rather than being gold like the lifts at the English Ministry, the metal had peeling paint and was slightly rusted. Charlie had marched right in, so at least it was safe.

Once outside in the city she followed him into an alley.

"Are you ready now?" Allegra nodded and wrapped herself around his arm. The floor was gone and in the same breath it was back, now a dusty track.

"That was much easier," she breathed.

Up ahead she could see a small town peaking over the brow of a hill. She looked up at Charlie and smiled.

"You look different." He was still him but he just looked ... manly. His shoulders were broader and thicker and he had filled out into his six foot frame. His hair was still dyed dark brown and it matched his eyebrows, eyes and stubble.

"So do you. Older. Much older."

"A lot of growing goes on between fourteen and sixteen." She agreed. "But you obviously haven't gotten any better at talking to women." Charlie rolled his eyes and started walking up the road.

"And you haven't got any less -"

"Charm." Allegra smiled.

"Sure. Charm. And I was worried it might be awkward."

"Not likely," she grinned. As they walked up to the town they discussed the simple things like school and work.

The town looked like someone had taken a French village and a Brazilian grotto and mashed them together. Apart from chickens running around, a donkey tied up outside a shop and a large Romanian woman hanging out her washing there was no one around.

"This is it." Charlie stopped in front of one of the French town houses.

"Your humble abode?" Charlie nodded and unlocked the door. Inside they were in a small hallway. "Through there is the living room," he pointed to the first door on the left, "the next door is the dining room - not that it's ever been used." Allegra walked forwards and stood in the doorway. It was a nice light room with two double doors leading out to a small garden. The room was full of books and strange bottles and the table was covered in equipment Allegra wouldn't have been able to guess the use of. "That's the kitchen." He pointed at the end of the hall but it had been visible as soon as she was through the front door. Terracotta tiles lined halfway up the walls and floors and cream paint covered the rest. The cabinets were light brown and the fridge was just a simple little white thing under the counter top.

"Very nice," Allegra approved.

"Now if you turn around we can go upstairs." Allegra did as told and followed a pale carpet up the stairs where it turned back on itself at the top. There was a picture halfway up that she stopped to look at.

"Are all the people you work with your age?" The photo contained a group of fourteen; ten guys and four girls including Charlie. They were all young and tanned in the sun gathered for a group photo. They laughed and moved together, one guy kissed a girl on the cheek and she flushed red.

"Yes and no. We mostly do the physical jobs while the older guys do the research."

Charlie was at the back of the photo, being one of the tallest and another guy was looking up at him and laughing. On Charlie's right was a tall blonde woman who was also glancing up at Charlie and then at the camera. Charlie laughed with the first man and then looked at the camera too.

"Who's that?" Allegra pointed at the shorter man who laughed with Charlie.

"Tristan, came over from America about the same time I got here. We've been paired together on practically everything ever since, it's hard to work without him now. He's at work doing some research on an egg that's come in but you'll meet him tonight or tomorrow."

"Cool." Allegra said, looking at the friendly face she'd just been told about. Tristan had curly hair that just covered his ears and one curl seemed to flop around over his right eye, she wondered if he still looked that way now.

"And who's that?" She pointed at the girl who gazed upon Charlie like a god.

"Acacia," he said, his tone showing little emotion, "Swedish girl, working in Finland now, I think."

"Didn't you like her?"

"I used to like her. Bad break up." Allegra nodded in understanding. She carried on up the stairs and waited for Charlie at the top.

"That's my room," he pointed at the door on the right. Allegra peaked inside. The room was light and airy, he'd made the bed up perfectly and the only indication that it was a man's room was the smell of cologne. " _This_ ," He turned her to face the next door _,_ "is your room."

Her room was much like Charlie's. Lots of cream, a big clean double bed with white sheets and a mountain of pillows. Around the edge of the room was a wardrobe and a chest of draws.

"It's great, thanks, Charlie." Allegra sat on the bed and fell back into the pillows.

"Just a heads up on the rules, you can use magic here but don't do anything to attract attention. From either Ministry."

"I'm trying to keep a low profile," Allegra said. "You know, since Voldemort -"

"Yes." Charlie cut her off.

"So what have you done other than work, lately?" She asked, pulling tiny suitcases from her pocket and enlarging them on her bed. Charlie sat down on the bed and started passing her things to put on the hangers in the wardrobe.

"Well, a couple of day's back I was doing something completely un-dragon related, but it was work."

"What was that?"

"A few of us had to visit some vampires to make sure they were clear of the tourist area." Charlie said normally.

" _Vampires?_ " she turned to look at him. "Why?"

"Because they live in the area. They do tours through Transylvania on the Dracula Tour and they've upped it to three times a year. Twice in October and once in March."

"So why does that affect them and you?"

"Because wanderers-off like the look of old castles and mansions and will go into their territory. We don't like to interfere with them but if they took a bite out of a tourist it would attract attention to the area, and apart from all the vampires and dragons up here we are a community almost entirely consisting of witches and wizards, most of us not Romanian."

"It would look a bit odd." She put a make-up bag on top of the dressing table. "So they don't ... the vampires don't bite you?"

"Oh, no," Charlie said as if it wasn't a plausible thing, "they wouldn't attack a wizard, they may be very skilled and physically strong, but our magic can restrain them fast enough. D'you know we smell different than humans? Muggleborns are more at risk, but they say magic blood gives them shakes." Charlie sounded fascinated.

"So where do they go?"

"Oh, anywhere. Mostly they live where they always have, but they don't like to be near humans. You know, apart from at dinner time."

She finished unpacking the important things and they went downstairs to get lunch.

"So, what do you have planned for me over the next week?" Allegra asked and then took a bite of her sandwich.

"Well, it won't be too exciting but I think you'll have fun. I've managed to persuade my boss to let you in to work. You'll be told how to handle situations, see different dragons, eggs, stuff like that."

"You don't think that's exciting?"

Charlie shrugged, "it's work."

"Charlie, the last time I saw a dragon was at the Triwizard Tournament last year. Before that, I don't think I'd ever seen a full grown one."

"And we'll go and do muggle stuff. Go out for dinner and drinks with my usual group. They all can't wait to meet you. If Tristan comes over on his way home then we'll all go out tonight, otherwise it'll be just you and me."

"I'm happy either way." Allegra smiled truthfully.

Tristan didn't stop over and so they walked into the local town (something that could legitimately be called a town) and to Charlie's favourite restaurant. It was a cozy little place, as though they were just in someone's house where the walls had been knocked through. The owners spoke English and Charlie was obviously a regular. They had extremely thick accents and so it took Allegra a fraction longer than normal to work out what they were saying.

"Ah, Charlie, wonderful to see you. Your usual table for two?"

"Yes please, thank you, Alin."

The short dark haired man showed them to their table. He was dressed smartly but it didn't look effortless like Charlie did. They were both wearing shirts and suit-trousers but whereas Charlie looked like a model Alin looked as though he had shopped in all the wrong places, eaten enough to give him an overhang and forgotten to grow taller than Allegra. However, under his thick black mustache was the biggest smile she'd ever seen and his cheeks looked like two red roses.

"And who is this beautiful young woman?" he asked smiling down at Allegra and passing them menus. "A girlfriend perhaps?" He smiled wider and pulled his chin into his chest.

"No, just a family friend," Charlie corrected.

"Pardon me, then, but it has been so long since you've had a woman that I am losing hope!" He through his hands into the air and laughed. "Let me know when you want to order."

Allegra eyed Charlie but there was no way he was going to look up. Allegra wanted to know why he hadn't been out with anyone. Sure, beautiful women were probably thin on the ground here, but they couldn't be nonexistent.

"So ... what looks good?" Charlie said glancing at her and then back down at the menu. Allegra looked down at the menu in her hands.

"Uh, I don't know, Charlie ... I can't read this."

"Oh, sorry," he blushed and went through the menu and translated anything he thought she might like. He called a short blonde waitress over. She wasn't much older than Charlie and she was clearly interested, but it didn't look like he was going to give her the time of day.

"So have you spoken to Harry? How is he holding up?"

Allegra sighed. "I'm not sure. I've spoken to him in letters but he hasn't mentioned Sirius. I'm sure it's not good for him to be so isolated at that house with those people -"

"They are his family, Ali."

"- who just ignore him and treat him like shit. I wanted him to stay at ours but Dumbledore insisted he go back to where he is best protected until the middle of the summer when he's allowed to go to your mum's or ours. I'm sure if Dumbledore knew I'd come here he'd be having a fit."

"I'm sure he would." Charlie agreed.

"When are you coming back to England?"

"Soon." Charlie said quickly enough that Allegra assumed the decision had been made for a while. "With everything that's happened and how things are going ... I don't think I'd be able to take it out here with all of you there. I went mad when I found out you were missing. It took days for me to find anything out, Tristan was going to the Ministry here to see if they knew. Work said I could take a week and go home but there wouldn't have been anything for me to do."

"I hope you do. You can stay at ours for Bill's wedding."

The food came and conversation flowed. Charlie danced around any talk of dating but was happy to talk about Allegra's love life.

"So I hear Fred's in love with you," he said easily.

"Aren't you meant to keep those kind of things a secret?"

"Probably, but I'm his big brother."

"And I'm the subject." Charlie shrugged. "I'm sure he's not in love with me, he just feels guilty because Alicia Spinnet had a go at me for 'leading him on'."

"Maybe." Charlie agreed. "What's the deal with you and Draco Malfoy then?" Allegra almost choked on her mouthful.

"How do you know about him?"

"I'm Charlie. I'm all seeing, all knowing. About your life, anyway." Allegra stared at him. "Ron tells me everything," he confessed. "So, deal, with Malfoy?"

"Just friends."

"Just friends?"

"Just friends."

"Do you think he's hot?"

"I think everyone's hot."

"Do you think I'm hot?"

"Yes."

"Oh," Charlie frowned and then thought about it for a second. "How did you become _just friends_ with him?"

"He is Blaise's best friend and ... I ... I don't really know." Luckily Charlie left it at that.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Allegra went downstairs in the morning Charlie was grinning at her from in front of the stove.

"How are you this morning?"

"Good." Allegra pulled out a chair at a small wooden table that could barely seat two.

"Good, are bacon sandwiches for breakfast alright?"

"Damn alright." Charlie walked over with two plates and a bottle of ketchup.

"Thanks," Allegra smiled pulling the plate towards her and adding copious amounts of ketchup to each sandwich. "What are we doing today?"

"Well," Charlie began through a mouthful and then swallowed, "I need to get some food shopping from the supermarket in the town where we went last night. There's a few touristy things to do there too so we can walk around, have lunch, whatever you want." Allegra nodded her head in reply, her mouth was too full to answer any other way.

"I saw James - one of the guys from work - at the village store when I went to get the bacon and we are all going out tonight. We're meeting on the road out of town and apparating together." Allegra had to nod again.

It wasn't long before they were ready to go to the supermarket. Charlie led her outside and around to the back of the house.

"Come down here."

"Why?" Allegra put her sunglasses on.

He walked up to something with a cover on and turned to grin at her. Before she had time to say anything he whipped the cover off. Allegra gasped.

"What is it? Why do you have one of those?"

Charlie looked offended, "it's a car, Allegra. And for the same reason everyone else has one."

"I don't have one; _most_ people I know don't have one, apart from your dad." Allegra glared at the rusty blue metal machine.

"Go on then, get in," Charlie sighed.

"GET IN?" Allegra jumped back. He was asking her to _get in_ the car. Why? What was wrong with simply disappearing and reappearing somewhere else. She hadn't been in a car often, and the last time had been in second year while escaping from Aragog's lair. The associations weren't good.

Charlie laughed at her. "It's not going to eat you. It doesn't fly, either, or have a mind of its own."

"Are you sure?" Allegra eyed it suspiciously.

"Very, we only use it to keep up appearances when we go to the local towns." Charlie leaned with his hands on the bonnet and looked amused.

Allegra edged towards it and knocked on the window to see if it would react. When it didn't she felt slightly better about the idea.

"Ok, how do I get in?" Allegra tried the handle and the door stayed shut. She looked up at Charlie who jingled the keys in the air and then unlocked it. Allegra tried the door again and this time it came open. She copied Charlie as he got in on the left and once she was in she closed the door. "This is strange."

Charlie had to do her seatbelt for her because she wouldn't let go of her bag in her lap.

"Okay now don't freak out, I am in complete control."

Charlie was finding it hard to stop laughing on the journey there. Allegra kept whimpering, talking to the car and grabbed the door handle each time they went over a bump on the dusty dirt road. Once they reached the tarmac she calmed down. Charlie tried to be kind and assure her that every pureblood wizard feels like that to start, but he'd thought she'd take it better considering all of the muggle things she owned.

He clearly didn't realise that it was _a moving metal coffin_.

It was about half an hour's drive to the large market town of Brasov. It was busy and about half the town's population was in the town centre. Charlie found a car park about half a mile out from the centre of town.

"See, that wasn't so bad." Charlie said locking the car. Allegra glared at him.

Charlie led her down the hill towards the town centre. The houses were, as in most continental European countries, three stories high. The cobbled streets started at doorsteps and you frequently had to press yourself up against the wall to let a small car pass. In the distance on each side of town were vast thick forests. Ahead, wide sandy coloured fields stretched out until they bumped into misty mountains.

As they grew closer the houses became small shops, selling all kinds of things you didn't really need. They passed a jewellery shop and Allegra stopped to look in through the window. Charlie soon noticed that she'd dropped back and came back to her side.

"That necklace looks a lot like the bracelet you got me for Christmas," she pointed at it and put her wrist up to the window to show the comparison.

"We should get it." Charlie said after seeing the similarities between the two items.

"I don't have any muggle money with me," Allegra said sadly, letting her hand drop away from the window.

"So." Charlie shrugged. "I'll pay for it."

He was already inside and speaking Romanian to the short dark woman inside before Allegra could argue. She rushed in after him.

"No, Charlie, you don't have to." She said as Charlie watched the woman take the silver pendant from the window display.

"I know, but I want to." Charlie said plainly, pulling out a brown leather wallet from his back pocket.

"You will let me pay you back, won't you?"

Charlie answered with silence. He paid the woman and thanked her, walking out the shop and passing Allegra the small bag.

"Just think of it as a well done present for doing so well in your OWLs."

"I didn't do my OWLs."

"Imagine, then," he smiled crookedly.

The two of them spent the day exploring the town. Charlie impressed Allegra with his knowledge of the town's history and how much Romanian he could speak. After lunch they went to the supermarket. It was dimly lit and pretty quiet. It was outside of the town and so there weren't any tourists inside just natives.

Allegra followed Charlie around the shop, looking at the interesting Romanian packaging. Allegra was looking at a loaf of bread with a frog on the side when she looked up and realised Charlie was turning at the top of the isle. Allegra jogged to catch up, not wanting to get lost somewhere she couldn't communicate with anyone. At the exact time Allegra turned the corner an old woman pushed her trolley out and straight into Allegra's side.

"Oww!" she cried as the metal trolley collided with her hip bone. Instead of being apologetic, the old woman started screaming at her in Romanian. "Oh, sorry." Allegra held her side and backed off as Charlie came to rescue her.

"What did you do?" He asked, pulling Allegra close and away from the ranting woman who was still violently shaking her fist and head.

"Nothing!" Allegra said. "She pushed her trolley into me." Half of the other shoppers had stopped to stare at the English couple in the middle of the store.

"Hey, Charlie!" Someone shouted, laughter in their voice. Charlie stood up straight to look over Allegra's head.

"Hey," Charlie laughed a little nervously, stepping in front of Allegra. Charlie and the man collided in a bear hug. The other shoppers rolled their eyes and got back to their business. Allegra could now see parts of the man and recognised him to be Tristan from the photograph. He looked almost the same, he had less of a tan and the mop of dark brown curls had turned into a mass that flopped in and around both eyes. Allegra stood awkwardly by the trolley until Tristan caught sight of her.

"Is this Allegra?" he asked, his American accent now clear.

"Yeah, I think the two of you will get along well."

"Hi," he offered his hand to Allegra, "I'm Tristan, nice to meet you."

"And you," Allegra smiled.

"Oh, and don't worry," he glanced over his shoulder, "I get attacked by old women all the time."

"Honestly, Ali, I leave you for two minutes and you get into a fight." Charlie shook his head.

"Yeah, I thought I could take her," she shrugged, "but obviously not." The two men laughed.

"Charlie described you well." Tristan said.

"Did he say hot? He usually says hot. I think it's a little perverted but you know, that's Charlie for you."

Tristan raised an eyebrow at Charlie.

"Do you think the others will like her?" Charlie gave Allegra a teasing glance.

"I think the others will love her."

Tristan joined them in their shopping and hitched a lift back in the blue-mean-machine, as Tristan called it. He also found it funny how Allegra was with the car, especially since he was muggleborn.

"Do your mum and dad know what you do for work?" Allegra asked, trying to turn to look at him in the back while holding onto the door.

"Sort of, they don't ask much though. My sister is also a witch so she helps them understand."

After dropping Tristan home Charlie pulled up outside his house and they unpacked the car.

"Are you ready yet?" Charlie asked irritably from the doorstep. He was trying to get Allegra out the door and was considering picking her up when she finally came down the stairs and stopped in front of the hall mirror.

"Yeah, I think so." She frowned at herself. "Do I look alright? Will this be like what other people are wearing?" Allegra pulled her tight BLD down a bit further and then back up again because she didn't want the cleavage.

"Yes, you should see some of these Romanian woman, you'll look _under_ dressed."

"Good, let's go." Allegra put on her blazer jacket and put her bag strap on her shoulder and followed Charlie outside. He stopped to close the door and Allegra secretly gave him the once over. He was wearing a silver-grey suit with an open collared black shirt, black belt and black leather shoes. He would have been on the dressed up side in England, so she hoped that was a good sign.

"How far is it until we meet them?" Allegra was looking down at her shoes and the dusty road and considering their incompatibility.

"Not far, why, you worried about your shoes getting dirty?" Charlie smirked.

"It's not a laughing matter Charlie, these are brand new shoes." Charlie laughed at her serious tone and glanced down at her feet.

"We can clean them when we get home and back to our wands." Allegra's frown disappeared, but only because he'd reminded her that she didn't need a wand. The shoes were going to survive, and survive clean, damn it.

After a short walk they emerged from the town and walked towards a large group of adults. Allegra was glad when they didn't all notice them approach at once as she suddenly had butterflies.

"Hey!" Tristan shouted when they got close. Allegra waved timidly.

"Alright," Charlie nodded and smiled encouragingly at Allegra as Tristan came forward in a similar outfit to Charlie.

"Hey Ali," Tristan said casually.

"Hey Tristan."

"Are you ready to meet everyone?"

"Sort of," Allegra wasn't looking so sure of herself.

"Okay," Tristan said and Charlie pushed Allegra forward towards the group. "Everyone!" Everyone turned and Allegra felt herself almost freeze like a deer in headlights. "This is Allegra, the girl Charlie has been telling us about." A number of enthusiastic hellos were uttered.

"Hi," Allegra said weakly, waving a hand again.

"Shall we go?" Tristan said, and Allegra looked at him gratefully. Allegra held on to Charlie's arm and they apparated to just outside the town. They started towards the town and Charlie and Allegra walked at the back with Tristan.

"That's James Whatts," Charlie pointed at the back of a man with short black hair.

"James!" Tristan called. He turned and looked at them through pale green eyes. He stood to let them catch up. "You went to Hogwarts, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded and smiled at Allegra, "I'm pretty sure I was long gone before you'd started, though."

Charlie nodded, "yeah, I was seventh year when she was first." James wasn't any taller than Allegra in the heels.

"What year are you?"

"Almost sixth," Allegra said.

"Really?" He raised his eyebrows. "I would have said you were eighteen."

"That's what Charlie said, although in a slightly different way." Allegra shot him a look.

"That's Dragos Trelles," Tristan whispered and pointed at the back of another man. "He's Romanian and twenty-two."

"He's our guide, usually," Charlie said. "He helps us if we can't tell what someone is saying. He knows the area like the back of his hand."

"That's Crina Silivasi, also Romanian," Tristan pointed at a chestnut haired girl at the front of the group. "She and James are like our mom and dad since they're two of the oldest." James punched Tristan in the arm. "Ow! You are!"

"That's Océane," Charlie said swiftly, gesturing to a girl who had hair like fire and green eyes that rivaled Allegra's and Harry's. She was grinning and showing rows of perfect white teeth. Allegra felt inadequate even from this distance. "She's French, only nineteen."

"She's talking to Bella - well, _Bellanca_ \- she's Greek." James said. "The loud one on the other side is Sinead, Irish would you believe." He said sarcastically as her lyrical accent reached their ears and bounced off every tree and mountain. "Sinead, come here!"

The small woman stopped talking and bounded towards them and wrapped her arms around Allegra. "Oh, Allegra, it's good to finally meet you; Charlie's told me so much about you."

"Is that a good thing?" Allegra asked, prying the small woman off.

"Of course!" she laughed.

"This is Sinead Quinn," James told her, "an over-confident Irish twenty-one year old."

"Oh James, always the charmer." She rolled her eyes in Allegra's direction. Her black hair was practically waist length and made her pale blue eyes glow like sapphires in her porcelain complexion. Sinead skipped off again.

"Sinead has another quirky feature," Charlie said under his breath, she can see bad things happen two minutes before they do. Helpful when you're around dragons."

Allegra looked up to find two men towering over her.

"Hello," she said impulsively.

"Hello Allegra, Saladino Moretti," the first man held out an elegant hand and Allegra shook it.

"Italian?" Allegra guessed.

"Of course," he smiled and ruffled his dark blonde hair that complemented his mossy green eyes.

"He's old," Tristan said.

"Tristan frequently gets beaten up." Saladino grabbed Tristan around the neck and walked off with him in a headlock.

"I'm Fidel," the second man smiled.

"Fiddle's the quiet one," Sinead said as she bounded back to Allegra's side, "twenty, Spanish and good with the baby dragons. Isn't that right, Fiddle?" Fidel was frowning a little, obviously irritated by what her irish accent did to his name.

"And the last three are Rainer, Fitz and Knoett," Charlie pointed at three men who were just entering the town. "Rainer is Swedish, Knoett's Norwegian and Fitz is French."

When they finally got into town Dragos and Crina started leading the way.

"I think we are going to _de ap_ _ă_ again, Charlie," Knoett dropped back to tell him and said hello to Allegra.

"Good, they seem to like us there."

"Er, do you have a fake I.D?" Saladino asked Allegra.

"Yes."

"We sorted one out at home. Although any English person would be able to tell in a heartbeat."

"I think she'll pass for one of us and they won't I.D her." Sinead said.

"Yes, I doubt it very much," James said in a fatherly tone.

And James was right, it wasn't a problem. As soon as the bouncers saw them they stepped out of the way and let them all in, Allegra was just in the middle of the group and blended in. Inside it was a mixture of tourists and locals out for the night.

Allegra found it easy to make friends with the group; most of them were outgoing and made sure that Allegra was involved. She quickly worked out that Fitz, Fidel, Bella and Knoett were they shy ones. Tristan was easiest to get on with since it seemed he had taken her under his wing.

She found it surprisingly easy to work out what they were saying even over the loud bass of the club thudding. There were a few in the group whom Allegra reckoned fancied each other, especially Crina and James.

"They've had a thing for years," Charlie told her when she asked if they were together, "but they won't tell us about it. But they don't always go home separately."

Allegra thought that Dragos and Bella liked each other, too. They stayed off at the side of the group talking. Fitz began to come out of his shell later into the night and he, Fidel, Knoett, Rainer and Charlie joined in with Tristan's man-only behaviour. Allegra took it as her cue to leave and went to talk to Océane and Sinead who were smiling and waving her over.

Océane and Sinead were always the centre of attention. They were loud and both seemed to love the spotlight. And they got it, both incredibly beautiful for two women living in the Romanian hillside; they had everyone's attention wherever they went.

They were both very talkative and Allegra knew French and Irish accents well so she didn't have any trouble picking up what they said. She found out that Océane had been in the year below Fleur at school but had not come to Hogwarts in fourth year. Allegra told her of Bill and Fleur's wedding plans for the next summer, and that Bill was Charlie's older brother. She found this very amusing but Sinead just rolled her eyes and moved on to a better topic.

"I think we're going to leave now, Ali," Charlie said finding her amongst the girls.

"Alright," she smiled, "what's the time?"

"One-ish, but it's a long walk back. He told her looking around as Tristan joined them.

"Come on, they're like sheep, if we leave they'll follow." Tristan smiled, James arriving at his side.

"Okay, let's go."

Sure enough the others did follow and they started the route home.

"No, Tristan, honestly, I would whip your ass at quidditch," Allegra stated with an I'm-grinning-but-I'm-dead-serious expression.

"She would," Charlie said, also seriously, "she's better than you. Her dad's the England quidditch Coach."

"Well we'll see, we'll play on Thursday." Tristan said cockily. Allegra would be more than happy to show him.

"Shit, Charlie," James said and Allegra, Tristan and Charlie turned around. Behind Sinead was standing with a glazed look over her face and her eyes had misted over.

"Fuck," she whispered coming out of the trance but it was easily heard over the silence that had fallen over the group.

"What did you see, Sinead?" Crina asked urgently.

"Urhh, a werewolf. A werewolf has picked up on our scent and we've got less than two minutes."

"Shit, does anyone have a wand?" James asked urgently, no one said anything and they went pale.

Allegra tugged Charlie's sleeve.

"What should we do, we can't outrun it?" Knoett said as they all began talking.

"Uh, Charlie," she said pulling again.

"No, of course not, let's just apparate from here and risk muggles seeing?" Océane asked worriedly, cowering into Saladino.

"I know, Ali, everything will be okay," Charlie said.

"And risk leading it to one of the towns? I don't know." James said.

"No - Charlie -" Allegra kicked him.

"Ow!"

"It's too late," Sinead said and a growl rippled through the air. They looked down the moonlit road and a huge black furry beast leaped from the forest and took down Fidel by his shoulders. Allegra tore forwards as the girls screamed. Fidel had his legs under the Were and was pushing him up. Allegra got close and the Were flew from Fidel and landed twenty feet down the road. It was growling and snarling in ways she'd only heard once before in third year with Lupin. Allegra pinned it to the road with invisible weights and it started to claw it's way towards her. Feeling that she couldn't keep it back, it flew up in the air and hung their thrashing.

"What the ..." escaped James' lips as the others looked on in disbelief. Then with an wailing howl the werewolf shot off in the air over the forest and out of sight.

When Allegra turned around everyone was staring at her.

"I will answer questions in a minute," Allegra ran to Fidel and took his arm, "but right now we need to apparate."

A second later they were on the road on the other side of their village miles between the werewolf and them.

"Fidel, are you alright?" Allegra looked at the claw marks that had ripped through his jacket and shirt. She helped him shrug the jacket off and then his shirt. Océane and Fitz appeared nearby and ran over. He was relatively ok, but his shoulders were gashed and bloody. "Come back to Charlie's, I saw some Essence of Dittany in the cupboard." Fidel winced but followed her back towards the town. Océane and Fitz followed closely.

"Was that you?" Océane asked. "Did you get rid of the werewolf?"

"Yes," Allegra nodded breathlessly, her heart was pounding her ribcage as though she was trying to break free.

"How?" Fitz asked.

"It's just something I can do," Allegra said honestly. They reached the house at the same time as Charlie and Tristan and Charlie ran to open the door. Allegra ran upstairs to the bathroom and got the Essence of Dittany and ran back down stairs. "Okay, stand still." Fidel stood with his back to her at the bottom of the stairs and she stood a few stairs from the bottom so that she could see properly. She squeezed the dropper and then squeezed it again over the gashes in Fidel's shoulders.

"You weren't bitten, were you?" Tristan asked as the rest of the group jogged up to the house.

"No, no." Fidel shook his head and gasped as the wounds fizzled and started to heal from the inside out. In a few seconds his shoulders looked almost normal.

"Allegra, what was that?" Charlie asked.

Allegra took a deep breath, "look, there's more than one reason why You-Know-Who is after me. He knows I can do ... that."

"That being?"

"I don't need a wand." Allegra said. "I don't even need words. It generally just happens."

"Wow!" Tristan grinned, the first person to break the severity in the room.

"That's awesome," Sinead smiled.

"Thank you," Fidel looked so sincere it almost made Allegra choke up.

"Allegra, calm down," Charlie laughed as she danced around waiting for him to lock the door. "You're going to be disappointed if you get too excited."

"Charlie, they're dragons. How could that be freaking boring?"

Charlie didn't answer and instead walked out and along the dusty road in yet another day of beautiful sunshine.

"Okay, but seriously the bouncing has to stop or my boss won't let you in."

"Okay, okay, I will." Allegra stopped vibrating and walked normally. "We're not going in the car again are we?"

Charlie laughed and shook his head, "no. We walk."

Charlie led her out the village and up a nearby mountain and up through the forest. The trees got thicker and path steeper, working them both into a sweat as the sun found them through the trees.

"Is it far?" she asked watching birds flutter from branch to branch.

"A little further." Charlie answered, glancing back over his shoulder. "When the ground begins to level we're close."

"Why couldn't we apparate?" Allegra moaned.

"I thought it would be a nice walk."

" _Nice walk?_ " Allegra repeated. "Charlie it's a freaking _hike_ , which would have been nice on the _way home_."

Charlie ignored her and they walked the rest of the way.

"Is that it?" Allegra asked seeing a fenced off area and a wooden cabin.

"Yeah, it's disguised as a hunting lodge to keep muggles out. It's bigger inside." All along the fence were large signs giving warnings in foreign languages. Once they reached the cabin Charlie opened the door and they slipped inside. "Tristan's meeting us in the office." Charlie led the way down a hall way and into a boring grey room. Allegra looked at Charlie. "I know what you're thinking, but this _is_ the worst place here."

"I think you need to redecorate."

"Yes, it is a little bleak, isn't it?" An older man of about sixty appeared from around a corner on Allegra's left and gave her a heartwarming smile. He was clearly a little battle-worn, he had a pair of glasses that sat crookedly on his - also crooked - nose. "You must be Allegra, I'm so glad you decided to join us today." Allegra smiled at him politely. "Oh, excuse me," he said with a chuckle, "I'm John and I guess you've met Tristan before."

"Yes, nice to meet you."

"I'll make this brief so that Tristan and Charlie can show you around."

Max gave Allegra a quick rundown of the rules which were basically what she needed to do to be safe.

"So, what shall we show her first?" Tristan asked Charlie over Allegra's head once they were out of the office.

"Well, I think Amethyx would be a good start."

"Amethyx?" Allegra repeated looking up at the two boys.

"The purple dragon," Charlie said with a glint in his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"I've told you already," Tristan said as Allegra stood closely behind him, "they can't hurt you here. There are barriers, you just can't see them." Charlie gave her arm a comforting squeeze.

"Yes, but that's not all that comforting when I can't see them." Allegra stood up on her tiptoes to peer over Tristan's shoulder.

"Well, you'd have one up on the rest of us anyway, wouldn't you?" Charlie added, looking out into the forest expectantly.

"I don't know, I've never fought off a dragon."

"Had you fought off a werewolf before?" Tristan asked, almost rhetorically.

"Unfortunately yes." Tristan turned to look at her over his shoulder. "One of our teachers had a problem."

"Here she comes," Charlie said.

Distant thudding preceded Amethyx's arrival. Allegra watched the dragon-sized hole in the trees and waited. Suddenly the sun glinted off something in Allegra's eyes and she had to squint to prevent being blinded. The glint moved and revealed one of the most beautiful creatures Allegra had ever seen. Amethyx called in a perfect, musical tone and rushed to one of the piles of flesh that had been put out for her. She put one enormous and slightly muddy foot on the top of the pile and started to dig in. A glamourous black claw edged each toe.

"She's beautiful." Allegra said.

"Isn't she?" Charlie said proudly.

Amethyx spread her enormous black and purple wings and gave one mighty flap before holding them loosely above her. Shining black scales framed the purple and the shade faded to a light lilac right in the centre of her wings. From under her and up over her chest to her chin large sliver tinted amethyst scales ran up in pairs, not a single one out of line with the other side. Sprouting from the center of her head, running all the way down to the end of her tale were razor sharp pointed spikes, shaped like waves curving over towards the next. As she ate - sometimes displaying an impressive jaw of cream coloured teeth - an equally long extravagant tail waved contently behind her. Her eyes were such a dark black that had they not caught the light you would almost doubt their existence.

Allegra saw many more Dragon's that day and two more had caught Allegra's particular attention; a completely black one called Dagaumonde and an emerald green dragon called Pele, after the Hawaiian goddess of the volcano. Dagaumonde was so completely black that if you met him at night all you would see was a darker shadow, a glint of the moonlight in his eyes and on his back and the noise that accompanied him whenever he moved. Pele was a mixture of greens, great for blending into her forest surroundings. She had an extremely long tail but a smaller wingspan to Amethyx who had a large wingspan.

For the rest of the day Charlie and Tristan showed her some of the eggs and baby dragons they were looking after. Some of the babies were tiny, but only compared to the adults that roamed out in the surrounding enclosure. Then Charlie and Tristan actually had to do some work and Allegra sat in the cabin with the eggs and chatted to Sinead.

The rest of the week passed easily. Every day the sun blazed down and Allegra soon found herself with a golden-brown tan, and Charlie a burnt nose, a trait the whole Weasley family obtained during the hottest weather.

Soon it was Sunday and Allegra packed her clothes and belongings away ready to leave.

The night before all of Charlie's friends had taken Allegra out to dinner as a final goodbye. Allegra agreed that she would come back soon, but was sure she was lying. If Voldemort became even more active, as she expected he would, she would have to be more careful about moving around, and if Charlie was true to his word and came home then that would be it. Tristan seemed to think he would come over with Charlie as he had never been to England, but Charlie, James and Allegra exchanged glances. The UK wasn't exactly in a state to receive tourists.

Charlie and Allegra apparated back to the Ministry where once in the Travel Office they had a long hug goodbye. Charlie spoke to the man at the booth and she followed him into the back room and waved goodbye to Charlie.

"Hold my arm," he said in an accent that Allegra guessed meant he had just learnt his lines and knew no more English. Allegra did so and without a warning apparated.

The sensation lasted just as long as before, and then her feet met solid ground.

"Ah, this is horrible," Allegra said as the world shook around her. The man opened the door for her and pushed her out, Allegra watched him disappear behind the door and she heard him apparate.

Right, well.

She turned to look for a familiar face and instead found one of the Ministry officials looking at her.

"Allegra Boone?" She nodded. "I'm afraid your dad has not been able to make it to get you home, however the Ministry has arranged for an Auror to escort you." Allegra walked through the archway towards her and jumped when the archway announced who she was. "Ah, here they are."

Allegra looked through the crowd and found Kingsley Shacklebolt striding towards them. He was taller than most wizards and easy to spot.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt?" Allegra looked at the Ministry Attendant, "the _Head_ Auror?"

The Ministry Attendant smiled at her, "I believe you are considered precious cargo, these days."

"Hello Miss Boone, I haven't seen you in a while," he said, flashing two rows of bright white teeth. The Ministry Attendant smiled and took her leave.

"I believe I saw a glimpse of you that night I escaped -"

"Yes, you did."

"- I assume that is why I get the Head Auror to take me home." Kingsley gave her a knowing look and led her out and back to the Atrium. A few people seemed to notice Allegra but mostly they were busy scattering out of his way.

After having to jog to keep up she found herself outside in normal muggle London.

"Take my arm please, Allegra," Allegra did so, trying not to feel nauseous about apparating again.

With a pop she appeared in front of the large black metal gates of her home.

"Here we are, I'm sure I don't need to escort you inside."

"Thank you," Allegra smiled and went to the box on the wall.

"Tell Mike I say hello." There was a loud pop and he was gone.

The speaker box glinted in the sun that had followed her back from Romania, it seemed to be just as hot in England as it had been there. Allegra pressed down on the warm rubber button and waited for Cassia to answer.

"Hello?" she said nervously.

"Don't worry, Cassia, it's just me."

"Good! I'll just let you in then," Cassia said, not sounding convincingly relieved.

"Thanks, see you in five minutes." Allegra started the long walk down the drive.

One of the large white doors was unlocked and Allegra pushed her way inside.

"I'm here!" She took her tiny suitcases out of her pocket and put them on the table. A pitter-patter of feet preceded Cassia running in from the kitchen.

"Allegra!"

"Cassia!" Allegra dropped to one knee to give her a hug.

"Did you have a good time? How was Charlie?" Cassia said in a rush.

"Yeah, it was -"

"There's someone here," Cassia whispered.

"There's what?" Allegra's eyes went wide and she looked around.

"No, no," Cassia held onto her, "someone on that list you gave me."

"Oh," Allegra sighed with relief and tried to calm her heart, it felt like it had just been jump-started. "Who?"

"I've forgotten."

Allegra narrowed her eyes at Cassia.

"What! He gave me his name and it was on the list so I let him in and the barriers didn't spit him back out so he is who he says he is and -"

"It's okay."

"- he's been here for a couple of hours maybe, he seems ... _troubled_."

"Where?"

"I left them in the library." Allegra raised an eyebrow and decided to investigate. She took the left corridor from the hall and walked through the door on the right opposite the living room. She closed the door quietly behind her and snuck forwards to peer around the bookshelves.

Sat by the large bay windows in a beanbag was Draco. He looked peaceful, just sat reading a book. That was, until Allegra realised that it wasn't a book at all; it was a photo album.

Draco jumped out of his skin as Allegra stampeded towards him and leapt into his lap, removing the album from his hands.

"Hey," she breathed, standing up and putting the album on the desk behind her.

"Hello," he replied. There was a moment of silence where they just looked at each other. "You know, you were a cute baby," he smirked and Allegra growled, dropping into a blue beanbag.

"How much have you seen?"

"Enough." Allegra glared at him. "That was my second album."

"Draco!"

"What? I don't know what to do in your house! Your elf led me in here and I didn't think there would be anything interesting but oh, how wrong I was."

"I hate you."

"You've got an interesting elf -"

"You've been nice to her, haven't you?" Draco looked like he was going to be sarcastic but then saw the real worry on Allegra's face.

"Yes, I have."

"Good, because she's here on her own free will. I treat her as my equal."

"Okay, I've got it."

"Good." Allegra breathed. Her eyes scanned him and she was about to ask why he was here when he seemed to notice the question coming up.

"Your owl seems to like me, brought me a dead mouse and everything."

"Lucky you," Allegra laughed.

"I know. I gave it back to her, which she seemed pleased about."

"I bet. Right, up to my room."

"Wow, I didn't think I'd hear that this soon, but -"

"Draco!"

"Your right, I'm sorry." He grinned, not sounding sorry at all. Allegra shook her head at him and led him upstairs to her room. Once inside Allegra went to the balcony doors and opened them to let some cool air in.

"You know, I think your house is bigger than mine."

"Don't lie, Draco."

"I'm not; why would I lie about that?" Allegra just made a noise of agreement.

"Has Cassia given you a room yet?" Allegra asked.

"No, she just put me in the library." Draco sat down on Allegra's bed and looked around. "I think my room's bigger than yours, though."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Allegra sat on the wooden box at the end of her bed and looked at him. "So this will sound rude, but why are you here?" The smile fell from Draco's face and sighed.

"I can't really tell you."

"Why?" Allegra asked, seeing that something was wrong.

"I can't tell you that, either." Allegra frowned at him.

"Well tell me something, anything." Draco looked up at her through pained eyes and then dropped them back to the floor.

"Okay. Ever since my Dad got caught, things have been going downhill." He sighed. "Now ... well, I don't want to be at home. My mum's a mess ... I can't be around that lot. Here they can't reach me." Allegra nodded and smiled at him.

"Well stay here as long as you like, come and go as you please."

"Thanks, I had a feeling you'd say that."

"But I have a few rules." Allegra stood in front of him and held up a finger.

" _Rules?_ "

"Number one, you have to be nice to Cassia at all times. She will do what you ask, but she's not a servant."

"Can do."

"Number two," Draco rolled his eyes, "I will be having people over and these people will be mainly Gryffindors, people you don't get on with. On these occasions you must either play nice or stay out of the way."

"I'll try."

"Number three," Allegra put three fingers in front of him, "you must join in quidditch practice with me and worship the ground my dad walks on."

"You made that a _rule_? What did you think I would do?"

"Number four -"

"Oh dear god, woman."

"- while you are staying in my house you shall treat me like a princess and you shall cater to my every whim." Draco raised an eyebrow. "I'm joking ... about the second part."

Allegra took Draco around and gave him the grand tour. She ended it with a crash course in using the TV and he seemed pleased with himself after.

"And this one works the same as the one in my room?"

"Yep, and the same the ones in all the rooms."

Draco grinned, "and I can do whatever I want in my room?"

"Yes," Allegra eyed him suspiciously, "within reason."

Draco went off to the room Allegra had assigned him to play with the TV controls so that Allegra could unpack and sort out her mail.

Allegra couldn't stop thinking about what could have gotten Draco to want to leave so suddenly and for such a prolonged stretch of time. It was obviously something big and unpleasant as he had managed to grow up and live with psychopaths around so far and still be fairly well adjusted. Allegra had a gut feeling it had something to do with Voldemort. But he'd made it clear he didn't want to tell her, and that was fine with her. It did worry her, though.

Allegra sighed to herself and picked up a letter.

 _Hello Little Miss Lucky,_

 _I hope you are having a good holiday, I can_ _'_ _t imagine you wouldn_ _'_ _t be. My life is still positively dull, but at least I_ _'_ _m allowed outside. Only a couple of weeks until my birthday, I can_ _'_ _t bloody wait. I_ _'_ _m practically counting down the seconds. Write back and tell me how exciting your holiday was._

 _Love Your Bored Friend,_

 _Harry x_

Allegra went up to her room to write a reply with her proper stationary.

 _Hello Bored Friend,_

 _Holiday was indeed amazing. Charlie is great and I met all of his work friends who were also lovely. The Dragon_ _'_ _s were amazing, Charlie gave me photos of a couple, I can_ _'_ _t wait to show you. I also brought you an awesome present (to accompany your birthday present) so all is not lost. Two weeks is hardly any time. I reckon you could stay here instead of with your crummy relatives next summer, Dad and Cassia would love it._

 _See you soon,_

 _Allegra x_

Allegra gave the letter to Midnight and she flew off with it at once. After, she strolled down the hall to Draco's room. She pushed open his door to find Draco sprawled across his bed with the two TV remotes on his chest.

"Comfortable?" Allegra asked, closing the door and sitting on the bed in the space left between an arm and a leg.

"Very." He smiled. Allegra looked at the screen to find him watching Family Guy.

"Good taste."

"It's funny," Draco said and moved his arm so that Allegra could settle in for the long run.

After dinner Allegra, Draco and Cassia went into the living room to watch TV.

"You know, you're a really good cook," Draco said, looking across the room to Cassia as she sat down.

"Oh, she knows." Allegra laughed and Cassia shook her head.

"You two aren't going to be much good when you're off on your own." Cassia said, taking control of the remote.

"Why?"

"Because neither of you will be able to do anything."

"Like what?" Draco asked, his eyes glued to the screen.

"Anything, you are both waited on hand-and-foot. Can either of you cook?"

"I try!" Allegra exclaimed, "you won't let me!"

Cassia just grunted and settled back into her seat.

"I think these skills are learnable by instinct," Draco said.

"Can you wash your own clothes?" Cassia asked.

"There are spells for that."

"Do you know them?"

"Nope," Allegra said proudly.

Cassia folded her stick-like arms behind her head, "I rest my case."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Allegra groaned as she woke up and she rolled over sleepily, only to bump into something hard.

"Ow! What's with the violence this morning?" Allegra opened her eyes and looked up at the source of the voice. Draco was up, surprisingly, fully dressed and sitting content on her bed watching her TV.

"Huh?" was all she could manage; she rolled back over and buried her head into the cloud like pillow.

"You know, you're quite a pretty sleeper. You don't make any weird noises and you sort of ... pout."

Allegra rolled back over, "you were watching me sleep?"

"Well, no, but it's not like I can ignore you when you're right there." He said, eating a piece of toast and staring at the screen. "You know, I think these muggles are really onto something here."

"Why are you right there?"

"Because it's almost half-ten and I wanted the company." Allegra nodded, not quite saying fair enough but she thought it was late enough not to rip him in half.

Allegra spotted her dressing gown draped across her dressing table against the opposite wall and it flew across the room to her open hand.

"How did you do that?" Draco asked with an intrigued expression.

"Err -" Allegra knew she'd made a mistake. "Hermione charmed it for me, whenever I want to get out of bed it comes to me."

Draco scanned her face and then shrugged.

"Oh, well you'll have to teach me that." Allegra let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Allegra slipped out of bed and into her bathroom.

"What's the weather like?" Allegra called.

"Um," she heard the mattress squeak as he leaned forwards to look out of the balcony doors, "sunny and hot again." Allegra picked out suitable clothing and went to shower.

"So, what do you want to do today?" Allegra asked watching as Cassia taught Draco how to make pancakes for an early lunch.

"I don't know, what is there to do?" He glanced up at her.

"Let me flip it," Draco backed off and Cassia did something very impressive involving her foot and the pan handle which resulted in the pancake flipping perfectly.

"Flying, swimming, the hot tub ... walking, shopping, something strange like the zoo ... ice skating or -"

"Any of those would be fine, really." Draco slipped the pancake onto the top of his pile and began drowning them in syrup.

"Well, how about we fly and I'll show you the quidditch pitch, then we'll walk into town, muggle-watch and shop, and then we'll find somewhere to go for dinner. Thanks," Allegra smiled at Cassia as she slipped her her own stack of syrupy pancakes.

"I like a woman who can make decisions." He had a mouthful and nodded at Cassia, "these are great." He swallowed and looked at Allegra, "a few questions. First, I have no muggle money -"

"That's fine, I have."

"And can I borrow a broom?"

"I thought you flew here?"

"I did," he nodded.

"Then why -"

"Because I don't have a Firebolt, and considering your father's position, I expect you get sent them for free."

Allegra looked at him sternly as he smiled sweetly. "... Fine." Draco smiled in triumph.

"Also, I have a proposal for you," Draco looked at Allegra to get her to continue, "my dad is coming home the day after tomorrow and Oliver Wood is coming to stay for a couple of nights, I was thinking of getting Blaise round to equal out the ratio."

"The ratio of what?"

"Slytherins to Gryffindors."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Allegra if they could make half houses you'd be in Slytherdor. I don't think there will be a power struggle."

"I'll invite Blaise," Allegra nodded, ignoring Draco.

"I'm sure I'll be able to steal you from Oliver whenever I want," Draco smiled confidently.

"You obviously haven't seen him recently; the girls will go mad if he's here when they come to stay." Allegra got up and took the plates to the sink.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realise I was meant to swoon." Draco said as she let the plates go and they began to wash themselves.

"No, I'm merely suggesting that Professional Quidditch is obviously physically a good route to take."

"I'm sure it is, but I'm not worried. I know you think I'm hot." Allegra rolled her eyes and looked at Cassia.

"You do think he's hot." Cassia said with an air of absolute disinterest. Draco jumped up and grinned at Allegra.

"Cassia!" she gasped. Cassia shrugged and giggled.

"See, you've even told her that!"

"I have not told her!"

"It doesn't change the fact that you find me sexually appealing."

"Oh god," Allegra put a hand over her mouth, "that sounds disgusting, I think I'm going to be sick."

"It's true." Cassia said blankly. Draco lit up.

"Well you're in love with Oliver!" Allegra shouted, pointing at Cassia who was innocently eating her lunch. Draco laughed harder as Cassia looked at her open mouthed. "Well done, Cassia, you managed to make Draco Malfoy's ego even bigger, I think I'm going to suffocate."

"It's a good job you're embarrassed or we'd all be suffocating." Allegra glared at him and led Draco into the room next door between the kitchen and Michael's office, where the quidditch equipment was kept.

"Wow," was Draco's immediate reaction. Inside the room was everything and anything to do with quidditch. Of course with her dad being who he was, he was often sent and given various objects to try and get him to endorse them, and also, if he liked them it was likely it would be purchased for the whole team. Along with the freebies were more brooms than Hogwarts owned, of various ages and ratings. There were also signed posters, vintage balls, framed kits, trophies and more.

"I love it in here," Allegra said, "it smells like worn leather and blood." Draco stopped admiring the room to look at Allegra strangely.

"I wish I could say I was joking about the last part." Draco snorted and walked over towards the glinting trophy cabinet.

"I never realised your dad was so good, are these all his?" He asked, glancing back at her where she was attempting to reach a Firebolt on the top rack, and not succeeding.

"Yeah, pretty much. That and whatever team it says on it too, he didn't play on his own." Draco nodded and turned back around to admire the trophies. Allegra glanced at him to check he wasn't about to turn around and then thought about the Firebolt coming to her - the broom she wanted and two extras flew towards her at speed and knocked her off her feet. Allegra and the three brooms fell clattering to the floor. Draco turned around in shock and looked at Allegra sat in the mess the brooms had caused.

"How, in the two seconds I'd turned my back, did you manage that?"

"Uh," Allegra looked around her. Draco looked at her sympathetically.

"Come on, love," he offered her his hand and picked her up and out of the danger zone. "Do you need one?"

"No, mine's out in the hallway, and we're good friends." Draco laughed and shook his head, picking up a Firebolt. "Do we need to clean this up?"

"No, Cassia may not be a normal elf but any chance she gets to clean and she's there." Draco followed Allegra out of the room and closed the door behind him. Allegra found her broom near where she had remembered leaving it, except now - of course - it was hanging on a broom rack. Allegra took it and walked out through the library and out into the back garden.

"You think you can fly it?" Allegra asked, glancing at the broom in Draco's hand.

"Pssh, if Potter can do it I'm sure I'll manage."

"Alright, but it goes faster, stops faster - in fact it does everything faster. And that one will be super sensitive as it hasn't been used much before."

"I promise I won't kill myself."

"Good." Allegra mounted her broom and waited for Draco to get on and sort himself out. She watched him give it a little try out.

"Sharp little thing, isn't it?"

"Follow me." Allegra took off towards the pitch.

"Geez, I didn't think we were racing." He said when he caught up to Allegra and looked down at the pitch. "Well, there weren't any knuts saved here, were there?"

"Draco, it's just grass and wood."

"Yeah, but a full size pitch, almost full sized goal posts and a few benches." He pointed down at four pathetic looking benches at the pitch edge.

"This is the quidditch pitch; there's the grass, there's the posts, and there's the benches."

"Will we play with Oliver and your dad?"

"Yes, and Blaise too if you remind me to write to him when we get back."

Draco had sent the letter to Blaise off with his owl. The rest of the day they spent wandering around the muggle shops, laughing at some of the strange things and buying a few interesting things. They walked to a nearby lake to sit and play with their new belongings and watch the evening roll in. Soon Allegra heard Draco's stomach rumble and so they went in search of food, and settled for the little restaurant on Ivy Street that Oliver had taken her to so often, and was now becoming popular with the local population too.

Draco had behaved impeccably all day, not a muggle joke in sight. Allegra had worried but maybe he knew she wouldn't find it funny, or maybe he was learning that the world did not revolve around purebloods. Either way, it was nice to relax and just have his company with only the worry of telling or showing him something he wasn't allowed to know.

They had finished a delicious dinner and were waiting on their pudding when the subject of school couples came up.

"So I'll make you a bet that Potter and Ginny are together by the end of sixth year."

"No, end of seventh I'd say, he's far too clueless with girls to do anything before seventh." Allegra shook her head and picked up a glass.

"Nope, I reckon Ginny will do something and he'll work it out."

"You are severely over estimating him, and besides, I'm pretty sure Ginny's with Dean Thomas at the moment."

Draco thought about this for a moment and then he made a face, he seemed to approve. "Even so, I'll bet you a galleon."

"Taken."

"I think Weasley and Granger will be, too."

"Maybe," Allegra said. "That's a lot more probable. I guess we might see when they come to stay after Harry's birthday."

"How long are they _all_ going to be staying?" Draco asked, a little hesitantly.

"All, one night. A lot, three and my usual lot will come and go." Draco didn't seem too upset with that.

"Oh, better than I expected."

"Yeah, I don't think I could -"

"One strawberry cheesecake and a toffee pudding?" a young lady stood at the side of the table.

"I'm the cheesecake," Allegra said, clearing the table in front of her so she could put it down.

"Thanks," Draco said as she gave him his.

"Excuse me," she said looking sheepish at Allegra, "I hope you don't mind me asking but it's just the staff were wondering, no offense to this lovely young man, but you haven't broken up with the man you usually come in with, have you?" Allegra looked up at her in shock and Draco mirrored the expression. "It's just, well, we all thought that you were the most perfect couple. You always look so happy with each other."

"Er, no -"

"Oh good!" She squealed, cutting Allegra off before she had time to explain that she was not involved with either boys. "Enjoy your meal." And with that she bounded off to tell the others.

Allegra looked at Draco with a dumbfounded expression, "Well that was entirely inappropriate. What was I saying?"

"I don't know. Something about your friends coming to stay, I think."

When they arrived home and went up to Allegra's room she found two letters on her bed.

"This one's for you." Draco took the letter and frowned, recognising the writing. He sighed loudly and walked out onto the balcony. The other letter was addressed to both of them from Blaise confirming that he would be arriving on Monday sometime between ten and one depending on when he started flying.

Draco came back in, still frowning and threw the crumpled up letter into the bin, jumping slightly as it began eating it.

"Is everything okay?"

"No," he breathed, sounding troubled. "I've got to go and visit my mother on Thursday."

"Oh."

"I shouldn't be long - in fact if I am, send the Aurors after me." Allegra smiled and laughed a little, but there was a seriousness to what he said that she couldn't shake.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Woah, Draco, you work fast!"

Allegra shifted her weight groggily and felt her skin peel off of Draco's chest in the heat, leaving a bright red cheek mark on his chest in the gap in his shirt and Allegra looked as though she'd been slapped.

"What?" Draco mumbled, sitting up and Allegra fell onto her back. Allegra's eyes seemed to have watered a lot in the night, apparently with some kind of superglue, and she was working on separating them.

"Guys, when I told you to behave yourselves I didn't think I'd actually have to be warning you!" Blaise laughed from the doorway.

"What? Blaise we didn't -"

"No, guys. It's okay. To be honest I thought it would be harder to get in Allegra's pants but -"

"No, really, we haven't." Allegra grumbled, managing to pry her left eye open.

"Draco's had a soft spot for you, so I'll -"

"BLAISE!" Draco lobbed a pillow at him. It didn't hurt him, but it still got him to shut up.

Failing in being able to see, or even work out what was going on, Allegra groaned and dropped her head down into the pillow in defeat. "We fell asleep watching a film."

"Really?" He asked skeptically.

"Would I deny it if I had?"

"... good point."

There were a few moments in silence before Allegra caught up with the conversation.

"Blaise, why are you here?" she asked the pillow.

"Sorry?" Allegra rolled over so that she was facing Draco's side.

"Why are you here?"

"Because you invited me." He said in an obvious tone, inviting himself in and she felt a breeze as he opened the balcony doors. She heard a rustle of feathers and the whooshing of air as Midnight, Draco's owl and Blaise's owl all flew out the door. "Woah, I didn't see those two in the corner. I hope you didn't mind them going out."

"No, I mean, why are you here _now_?"

"I told you I'd be coming now." She felt the bed dip as he sat down by her feet.

"What's the time?" Draco asked.

"Gone eleven."

"Oh no, Blaise, is there a letter on my desk?" Allegra asked, leaping out of bed after pushing Draco off of his side.

"Uh, no, but I did see some on the desk in the hall."

"I really need you to go down and get them." She said with a pleading expression.

"Why?"

"Because, somewhere there is a letter that says what time dad and Oliver are getting back, and if it's seconds away, we're fucked."

"Who's Oliver?"

"Just go, please Blaise!"

"I'll go and get dressed." Draco got up and jogged out the room. With the room empty, Allegra used magic to fix her hair, do her make-up and hand her clothes in the bathroom.

"I've got them!" Blaise called as he entered the room, fading off a little when he saw the room was empty.

"I'm in here, can you open the ones that are addressed to me?" Allegra jumped around trying to pull a pair of skinny jeans on. Blaise tore open one of the envelopes.

"I don't think this one's it ... it is interesting though ... Hey Draco, get a look at this!"

"What is it?" Draco asked walking into the room looking like a reputable human being.

"Guys, can we stay focused and stop reading my private letters?" Allegra heard a snigger in reply. "Who's it from?"

The boys laughed darkly, "Fred."

"Okay, you've had your fun, find the right letter." Allegra finished getting dressed and looked in the mirror.

"Who is Oliver, anyway?" Allegra heard Blaise mutter, and Draco began to describe him. "It says ... around four."

"Right," Allegra said, emerging from the bathroom. "There wasn't really any reason for us to rush then." The boys shook their heads in sync.

"Well actually I'd say Fred's letter was reason to rush," Blaise smirked after a momentary silence.

"What does it say?" Allegra moved to take it from them.

"Basically saying he still has feelings for you and he still feels terrible, he doesn't expect you to do anything but had to tell you, blah blah blah." Blaise dropped the letters onto the bed behind him.

"You can be quite heartless Blaise, you know." Allegra picked up the letter, folded it and stuffed it into her jean's pocket.

"Ali, we've promised we'll be on our best behaviour, what more can we do?" Blaise said after Allegra had told them what would happen if they didn't, for the third time since they had started their lunch.

"Do you really think we'll be that bad?" Draco asked, sounding a little offended.

"Not in front of my dad," she said honestly, "but Oliver ..."

"He's a team quidditch player, we'll give the guy some respect."

"Besides," Blaise grinned, "your dad freaking loves me!"

Allegra smiled as Draco turned to look at her, "it's true, he does."

"Exactly," Draco said after swallowing a mouthful of sandwich, "we've told you we don't mind entertaining ourselves, I mean, bloody hell, we're not exactly short for space."

"I'm not sure you've got enough room for all four egos though." Cassia grinned cheekily as she brought another plate of sandwiches to the patio. Blaise thanked her and spared no time in refilling his plate. And mouth. Cassia was loving having two teenage boys at the house, she got to make triple the amount of food as normal and it would still all be eaten.

"Well three have gotten through the first three hours," Draco said to her, "surely his can't be as big as ours?" Cassia climbed up onto her chair and adjusted her straw hat that had fallen down over her eyes.

"Mmm ..." She eyed the three teens. "I would say pretty close to Allegra's, but not either of yours."

"So there we go then," Draco said getting back to the point, "he's going to be at work in the day -"

"Some days."

"- and we won't be here all the time. Blaise actually likes some members of his family," Blaise made a grunting noise, "and all your minions will be round in a week or two and he will have more friends."

"Doesn't he have a house?" Blaise asked.

"If you're going to have a problem with anyone, it will be him not us."

It was Allegra's turn to grunt.

Despite the boys good faith that nothing was going to go wrong, Cassia didn't seem to share that optimism. She seemed to think that Oliver was going to have some kind of outburst that two boys were staying in the house. Allegra said that it wasn't his place and that if her dad didn't mind then it was okay. Cassia didn't think that was going to make a difference, but Allegra had a little more faith in Oliver. The only problem was that Oliver would have no idea that Draco and Blaise were round and unlike Allegra's dad who would be ecstatic to have more people in the house, Oliver was likely to find it a bit of a shock to find strangers in his second home.

"Do you know what you're going to say?" Blaise asked, looking through the range of colourful perfume bottles on her dressing table, smelling some of them and made the appropriate expression according on how much he liked it.

"Sort of, but I'm planning to wing it." Allegra replied from where she was lounging comfortably beside Draco on her bed, Draco had become completely submerged in the world of muggle television.

"I reckon it'll be fine, urgh, why did you get this? It smells like a Divination class room," Blaise held up a peach coloured square bottle at arms length, scrunching up his nose in distaste and glared at it as if it had insulted him.

"Hence why it is a full bottle."

"Why did you get it?"

"I didn't, it was a present. At Christmas I get sent things from lots of distant relatives I've never met that feel bad that I don't have a mum and think cheap perfume will fill the void."

"We all have that," Draco said distantly.

"Yeah, they could send you money, but oh no, they send socks, chocolate, or something completely inappropriate for someone you don't know but feel you should so just guess on stereotype. Still, why have you kept it?"

"Pretty bottle." Blaise rolled his eyes.

"You're such a girl," he laughed.

A little while later Cassia opened the door and looked at Blaise with confusion, flaring her nostrils. "Do you realise you smell like a woman?" Blaise sniffed his shirt. "Anyway, Michael and Oliver will be here in a minute. Literally." Allegra climbed over Draco and Cassia backed out of the room.

"Come on!" Allegra said stopping to look at the boys from the doorway.

The boys got up and tried to drag themselves from the TV.

When she reached the top of the stairs they were already coming inside and putting their brooms on the rack.

"Dad!" Allegra smiled, jogging down the stairs and to hug him.

"Hey," he looked up and grinned over his daughter's shoulder. "Blaise! Fantastic to see you!"

"Hi Mike," Blaise grinned, "this is Draco."

"Good to meet you Draco, are you both staying?" The boys nodded. "Great! Stay as long as you like!" Allegra was saying hello to Oliver who was happy to see her, but looking a little put off by Blaise and Draco's appearance.

"Thank you, sir." Draco said.

"Sir? No, no, call me Mike."

"Okay, thanks Mike."

Luckily Oliver wanted to go and get settled in his room and have a bath so Allegra, Draco and Blaise went back to Allegra's room until dinner time. Dinner had started well, although conversation had been pretty one sided. Oliver and Mike asked Allegra about her holiday and talked about their latest trip. Blaise, Draco and Cassia listened intently.

"So, do you boys like quidditch?" Oliver asked after a natural pause in conversation.

"Yes." Draco was first to answer but Blaise nodded too.

"Draco is Slytherin seeker and Blaise is a chaser like me." Allegra told him.

"Great, we'll be having a game tomorrow, then." Mike grinned.

"I'd hoped so." Draco said honestly. After dinner they all went into the living room. Draco and Blaise too the two side sofas and Mike, Oliver and Allegra sat on the corner sofa. The TV offered a common ground since they were all purebloods and had only watched TV while at Allegra's. When Cassia came in she walked over to Blaise who was on her usual seat.

"Hop it." She motioned over her shoulder with a green stubby thumb. Blaise's eyes narrowed and looked as if he was going to give her a flat answer. Allegra made one loud obvious cough that said it would not be a wise move. He got up and Cassia jumped up and fell into her usual position. Blaise looked around for somewhere else to reside. He decided to bring all of the beanbags from the back of the room and the library to the middle of the room and made a bed of them directly in front of the TV, and groaned a little as he sunk into them, as if trying to make everyone else jealous.

Blaise went home the day the OWL results were coming but Draco stayed. Whether it was because he _really_ didn't want to go home, didn't care about OWL results or his parents didn't care about OWL results, Allegra couldn't work out.

"So how are you getting your OWLs again?" Draco asked spearing a lump of scrambled egg with his fork.

"I don't know if I will get any," Allegra said, "they were just going to make predictions and decide whether I would be okay to do my NEWT classes."

"Lucky," Draco mumbled. "I wish mine were flexible."

"I personally can't wait to see them!" Mike piped up from the other side of the kitchen. "Thanks to Draco I get to see some real results! I guess I'll just have to wait for NEWTs for you, Allegra. Are you sure your mother doesn't mind you being here today, Draco?"

"No, not at all. She's not even home today, anyway. It's nice to be somewhere where they might actually be celebrated."

"Oh, no doubt, Draco! No pressure, either. I certainly wasn't god's gift to humanity in academics. Quidditch though ..." He smiled cockily and looked down at the newspaper.

"You know, I'm really bored of being inside all the time now." Allegra grumbled shoving a half empty cereal bowl away from her.

"Yes, we know." Cassia said, taking the bowl and walking around to the sink.

"I can't help it, I want to go outside. I feel deprived." Allegra had been on house-arrest ever since Oliver and Michael had returned and decided that it was too dangerous for her to leave the house. What was worse, was that Draco and Blaise had agreed.

"Allegra, you have a house and garden the size of a small country, you're not exactly cooped up," Draco said. He'd made this point before. Allegra sighed and rested her chin in a palm.

"And you have Draco," Michael continued, "and Blaise most the time. You're going to the Burrow in a few days and then you can have people here. You just have to be patient."

"I don't like being patient."

"Yes, we all know that, Ali."

Draco finished up his very large breakfast and pushed his plate forwards at Cassia and smiled.

"Thanks, that was great. I never get anything like that at home." He turned towards Allegra. "Want anything more to drink?"

"No, I'm good, thanks." Draco got up and went to the fridge.

"I can see them!" Cassia shouted, she dropped a plate and Allegra caught it with a spell before it could hit the ground. Michael shot her a glare as she only just managed to slip it into the sink before Draco turned around. Draco looked out the window following Cassia's gaze.

"Cassia, there are four dots. It could easily be crows, we only need two." Draco went back to pouring himself a glass of orange juice.

"Oh, but they do look like owl dots, don't you think, Mike?" Michael turned from giving Allegra a talking to with his expression and mimicked Draco in following Cassia's stare.

"Yes, they do. Maybe we have a lot of post? Yes, I'm sure they're owls." Draco came and sat back down next to Allegra and looked down at the newspaper between them. Allegra was gazing out of the same window despite not being able to see anything.

Cassia and Mike muttered to each other as the owls got closer and eventually opened the window, which took a little effort from both of them because it wouldn't budge at first. A few seconds later four owls came skidding across the worktop in front of Allegra and one tiny brown speckled owl body slammed into Draco's chest, giving itself quite a start.

"Bloody hell, these birds have no breaks." Draco nudged the bird back onto the breakfast bar, more gently than Allegra had expected. Mike had suddenly appeared only a seat away with an expression that would be similar to what Allegra would look like if someone was going to give her a no-calorie donut.

Allegra and Draco both detached the letters and a parcel from the four birds feet. Cassia cautiously walked over with a bowl of owl treats and the four birds - including one particularly large one - lunged at her with excited jumping. Cassia screamed and threw the bowl down at their feet and jumped back, sending owl treats scattering over the worktop.

"Oh, Cassia, every time!" Mike laughed, gathering some of the treats and making a small pile so that the smallest owl could actually get some.

Draco started tearing open his letter with a move of indecision, he couldn't decide whether to rush or be unnaturally laid back about it. Allegra looked at the envelope that looked similar to Draco's and opened the envelope carefully. Inside was one long piece of parchment, longer than Draco's and the top simply confirmed what she already knew.

 _Dear Allegra Boone,_

 _Due to the events of the last three months you were unable to take the fifth year final examinations. Therefore, the headmaster has met with each of your teachers to give you an approximate grade. We would like to confirm that you have been accepted onto all of your chosen NEWT courses and look forward to welcoming you back at Hogwarts. This document is for you to have a guide on your progress and so that you will be able to offer future employers a document of proof._

 _If you have any further queries, please contact Professor Minerva McGonagall or Professor Albus Dumbledore._

 _Signed,_

 _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

 _Pass Grades: Outstanding (O)_

 _Exceeds Expectations (E)_

 _Acceptable (A)_

 _Fail Grades: Poor (P)_

 _Dreadful (D)_

 _Troll (T)_

 _Allegra Samantha Boone has achieved:_

 _Astronomy: A_

 _Care of Magical Creatures: E_

 _Charms: E_

 _Defense Against the Dark Arts: O_

 _Herbology: A_

 _History of Magic: O_

 _Muggle Studies: D_

 _Potions: E_

 _Transfiguration: E_

Allegra looked up at Draco who was already looking down at her.

"How'd you do?" he asked.

"Swap." She passed Draco her sheet and he gave her his.

 _Draco Atlas Malfoy has achieved:_

 _Astronomy: O_

 _Care of Magical Creatures: A_

 _Charms: E_

 _Defense Against the Dark Arts: O_

 _Herbology: A_

 _History of Magic: P_

 _Divination: D_

 _Potions: O_

 _Transfiguration: E_

"Wow, Draco, you're pretty good at your subjects." Allegra smiled and Michael leaned across and took the papers out of their hands.

"Just because I'm a Slytherin doesn't make me stupid. We're probably better than Gryffindor."

Allegra scoffed.

"Well done, guys! These are great! You better write to Ron, Ali, find out how they've done. What do you want to do after school, Draco?"

"Oh, I don't really know ..."

"Undecided? I didn't decide until after school. Mind you, I'm not sure I ever made a real decision about it until I took this job!" He handed them back their results and smiled.

"I'm gunna go write to my mum," Draco smiled politely and left the kitchen for his room.

Mike paused as Cassia left the room skipping, obviously pleased with the results, he then turned to Allegra with an expression she couldn't read. "I've been meaning to talk to you."

"About what?" Allegra asked apprehensively.

"About what you are doing with your current guests when you go to the Burrow for a few days."

"Oh," she breathed.

"Now, I don't think it will be an issue, but I just wanted to talk to you ... Draco, you said he's having problems at home ... presumably he will want to stay?"

Allegra hadn't really thought about it. She hadn't imagined her dad would suggest this but apparently Draco had done his job getting Mike to fall for him.

"Well, he's only left a few times for a few hours."

"I will be here, so he can stay, if he wants. Blaise too. I don't want Draco to be in any _situations_ if I can prevent it." Allegra smiled and jumped up to give him a hug.

"I will talk to them."

"I think he is an honest lad, but I am putting my faith in you that it is safe to have him around. After all, his father is in Azkaban." Michael whispered the latter.

"Unless everything he or Blaise has ever said to me has been fake, I don't believe he has any feelings for his father."

Michael made a pained expression, "that's a shame." He sighed. "Well, I've got planning to do. I'll be in the office." Michael got up, picked up a letter addressed to him and left. Allegra turned her attention to the parcel, which was apparently addressed to her. The handwriting was a fancy script and she began opening the sugar brown envelope.

 _Dear Allegra,_

 _I would very much like it if you read this letter in private, or only with the company of someone you have complete trust in, for the latter part of this letter._

 _First, although I_ _'_ _m sure he has already informed you, I feel as though I should, too. I have moved Harry to the Burrow a week earlier than originally planned, so if you want to contact him he_ _'_ _ll be at the Burrow. While on the subject, I have spoken to the Weasleys about your stay already, and obviously they will have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders housing both you and Harry during these troubled times - therefore I would appreciate it immensely if you kept your free spirit within the confines of the Burrow and the garden while you are in their care._

 _This leads me onto the subject of the parcel. We are all aware of the current situation happening outside our doors. You are in particular danger as you are in_ _"_ _higher demand_ _"_ _among certain groups. Therefore, I have decided to give you this: an Invisibility Cloak. Now, this one is not like Harry_ _'_ _s, it will eventually wear out and it will do no more than make you invisible. I give this to you, not so you can sneak around when you shouldn_ _'_ _t, but to keep on your persons in the future so that it may help you keep out of persons reach._

 _Your father has told me whom you currently have residing in your home. I trust your judgement and support you in your friendship with Draco Malfoy, but I simply ask you to be careful in what you disclose to him. Not because I think he will betray you or is anything like his father, but sometimes people can be forced to say or do things they don_ _'_ _t want to._

 _Your father has also disclosed your plan of a party for Harry and Neville Longbottom. If you write to me with a list of guests I will write to their parents and assure them that your home is a safe place to house their child._

 _Congratulations on being accepted onto your NEWT classes._

 _Enjoy your holiday,_

 _Albus Dumbledore_

Allegra folded up the letter and hastily set it aside. She eagerly opened the package and pulled out the flowing silver fabric. It looked very similar to Harry's but the silvery shimmer didn't look as metallic as Harry's, instead it looked glittery. It also wasn't as large, Harry's seemed to stretch and shrink, and only in the last year or two had it stopped hiding all four of them. This one - Allegra's cloak, she thought it might just cover her and Hermione. But that didn't matter - she had a _freaking_ invisibility cloak. Dumbledore said to limit its use to emergencies but ... Allegra snickered with mischief and satisfaction and threw the cloth her head and headed out of the kitchen to test it out.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Dad, was that the doorbell?" Allegra asked.

"Take Draco and see," he smiled, Cassia flailing wildly on his shoulders screeching like a banshee along to the music. It was a good job the hall made everything echo or she wouldn't have heard it at all. Allegra stumbled a little on her way to Draco, passing Oliver who had his usual grumpy face on whenever Allegra did anything with Draco or Blaise and it had been showing up all night. Enough that Draco seemed to be resistant to join in the celebrations and had mostly been sitting in an armchair knocking back the drink like it was Coca-Cola.

"Come on, Draco," Allegra grinned, taking his empty hand and attempting to pull him up. He got up reluctantly, not needing any help from Allegra. She towed him out the door and out into the hall.

Draco stopped and Allegra reached the end of his arm and came crashing back as if on a bungee.

"Wow, I'd forgotten alcohol doesn't really affect you until you stand up," Draco said.

Allegra pulled free of Draco's grip and twirled away towards the speaker by the door, but tripped on her own foot as she avoided the circular table in the centre of the hall.

Draco caught her arm before she toppled and he pulled her back onto her feet.

"Steady there, love."

Determined to reach the speaker box alone, Allegra pushed away from Draco and ran to it, pressing down on the big black button.

"Hello? You know running is so much easier than walking," Allegra said turning back to Draco.

"Oh great, you're drunk." The voice came through from the other side in a familiar mocking tone.

"Blaise?" Draco said, resting an arm against the wall over Allegra's head.

"Yes, I'm back early. Can you let me in?" Allegra saw Draco's expression change to something she couldn't read.

"Wait, you have to answer some precautionary questions," Allegra said in a business-like tone.

"Oh, you choose _now_ to be responsible."

"Shut up, Blaise. Okay, when you first got here this summer where was I?"

"In your bed. With Draco."

"Okay, it's you, come in." Allegra pressed the button to open the gates – and let up the shield spell for him - and turned back to Draco. His shoulders were set in tense lines.

"Are you -"

"I'm going to stay and wait for Blaise; I'll bring him with me when I come back." He told her soberly.

Allegra frowned and absently crossed her arms. "That's not what I was going to ask."

"Oh, what?"

"Are you alright?" Draco gave three sharp nods and settled himself against the centre table.

"I guess I'll see you in a minute then." Allegra said, a little short and walked back into the living room.

Inside she found all the cushions strewn across the floor and Cassia jumping from one to another, beckoning for her father to join her in her game. Mike had a wry smile; he looked tempted to play but was - luckily for Allegra - holding back from making an embarrassment out of himself. Oliver had recoiled into the deep corner of the L-shaped sofa and had the same expression that she'd left him with.

"What was it?" he asked, his features lightening when he saw the lack of Draco.

"Blaise, he's back early." Allegra climbed onto the sofa and settled nearby.

"You did check it was really him, didn't you?" Mike asked as he skipped a song that was playing.

"Of course."

"Where's Lightbulb?" Oliver smirked.

"Waiting." She said, ignoring Oliver's bullying tone. "And his name is Draco, you know. Or at least Malfoy."

"I know."

"So if you could stop snapping at his ankles like a rabid werewolf, that would be great," Allegra snapped. Oliver looked a little at loss for words. Allegra waited for him to say something and when he didn't she shuffled away in the direction of the door.

"Don't go," Oliver sighed.

"I'm not, I'm going to go and see if Blaise is here." Allegra snapped.

Back in the hall Blaise had arrived and seemed to be whispering furiously to Draco. Allegra stood watching the two concur until Blaise nodded and noticed Allegra watching.

"Allegra," he said with a sharp intake of breath, "how long have you been there?" Draco turned quickly with a guilty expression, lines of worry were mixed on his features. Allegra searched the two boys with her eyes, trying to decide whether to be suspicious of their conversation or dismiss it completely.

"A while," she shrugged.

"I wish you wouldn't sneak around, it's like having a ghost." Draco smiled.

"What were you talking about?" Draco opened his mouth to answer but Blaise stepped in.

"Just news from home and my results," he grinned. Whether it was because of his results or that he had succeeded in distracting her, she wasn't sure. Allegra frowned for a few beats before giving up and smiling.

"Were they good? What'd you get?" He looked up at the ceiling and bit down on his lip while he recited his results.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts - O, Potions - O, Care of Magical Creatures - E, Charms - E, History of Magic A, Transfiguration - O, Astronomy - E, Herbology - E, Divination - D." He grinned.

"Blaise!" Allegra exclaimed, taking off towards him and producing the biggest hug she could give to a six-foot boy. "That's amazing, three Os in important subjects! Come on, Dad will be thrilled!"

Blaise was like a giant painkiller. He walked into the room and immediately everything seemed easier. Allegra didn't know whether it was just an effect for her, but he certainly seemed to dilute the testosterone problem. Draco didn't go back to his armchair, but Oliver did sit and glare.

Michael practically jumped for joy when he heard Blaise's results. His celebration was a little alcohol fueled but Blaise didn't seem to mind. Mike also relaxed with Blaise around, he was not completely oblivious to the tension between Oliver and Draco.

Which was, unfortunately, about to get a little out of hand.

Allegra had suspected that, as Cassia had said, it wouldn't take much for an argument to break out, all it needed was the right conditions.

"I'm going off to bed; there's a silencing charm on my room so be as loud as you wish. Goodnight," Mike said. They returned the goodnight and left.

"In that case, I'm going to visit Dobby," Cassia grinned mysteriously and disappeared with a loud pop.

"Lucky Dobby." Allegra giggled.

"All elves are secret alcoholics," Blaise said, twirling Allegra around easily in a dancing motion, helping her to stay upright. Since he had arrived late he hadn't had much to drink. Draco swayed a little as he walked towards them, Oliver made an almost identical move on the other side of the room.

Blaise continued to twirl Allegra around. Oliver tried to take Allegra's hand but she was still irritated with him and threw herself the other way, colliding with Draco and knocking him to the floor. On Allegra's way down she tried to grab Blaise but simply pulled him down on top of them. They all laughed - including Oliver - at their lack of balance. Oliver offered Blaise a hand that he took. Draco smirked up at Allegra who was on top of him.

"Allegra, this is so sudden," Allegra laughed at him as he rolled over playfully so that he was leaning over her, hands either side of her head, "but if you wanted me, you should have just said."

Suddenly, Draco was gone, Blaise picked Allegra up off the floor and it took Allegra a few seconds to realise what was going on. Oliver had pulled Draco up by his shirt and Draco had ripped out of his grasp. They stared at each other.

"What is your problem?" Draco growled. The two young men squared up. They were similar in body shape, what Draco lacked in the muscle Oliver had he made up for in height and presence.

"Oliver!" Allegra shouted, feeling anger bubble inside her. For the first time in months she felt a little less than in control over her power.

"You, you're my problem." Oliver jabbed Draco in the chest. "I have no idea who you are and you're with her _all the time_."

"What right do you have to dictate who she spends her time with?" Draco said clearly. Oliver didn't have an answer, which made matters worse.

"I know that _you_ are _not_ the kind of person she should be associated with."

"That's none of your business!" Allegra said.

"It is, Allegra, your dad trusts me to look out for you and after you."

"He can do that himself, now, he's in the house!" Allegra shouted, her pitch rising.

"I can't choose where I come from." Draco said. "Allegra wants me here. End of conversation." Allegra had her hands balled up in tight fists.

Oliver moved a fraction, shifting his weight, and Blaise groaned beside Allegra and bobbed on his toes for a second in indecision before taking a step back and putting an arm in front of Allegra.

"After all the hell she went through this spring I think if you really cared for her you wouldn't be here."

"Fuck you. You really think I would be here if it actually endangered her? You think Mike would let me in if he thought I was going to get his daughter into trouble? How little respect do you have for him? _And her?_ "

Oliver poked his fingers hard into Draco's shoulder.

"I'm just making sure they're not being fooled by You-Know-Who-loving –"

Draco pushed Oliver and he took a few steps back.

"Stop it!" Allegra shouted, moving towards them quickly as the bowls and glasses began to rattle on their tabletops. Luckily for Allegra it blended in with the still playing music.

"Stay back, Allegra," Oliver pushed her back to keep her out the way, but under the influence of anger and alcohol pushed her harder than he'd anticipated. Allegra lost her footing and fell back at Blaise's feet. Allegra looked up to see a new emotion crash onto Draco's features and his right fist swing upwards and collide with a painful crack just under Oliver's left eye. Oliver stumbled back in shock and pain as Blaise scooped Allegra up and pulled her far out of the way. Oliver flung himself at Draco and his fist struck Draco's left cheekbone with an audible whack. Suddenly Blaise was between them, holding them each at arm's length.

"Fucking grow up!" He growled. Allegra hoped for the love of god her father couldn't hear this. They broke free of Blaise's grip and stumbled towards each other again, each landing a blow. Oliver's nose exploded in red as Draco's lip split. Allegra lost it, the stereo turned off and all the lightbulbs in the room, on or off, exploded sending tiny bits of glass everywhere. The surprise distracted the boys long enough for Allegra to get up and in between them with Blaise.

"YOU'RE FUCKING DISGRACEFUL!" Allegra screamed in the now silence. Oliver made a move towards her. "You dare touch me."

"Allegra, I'm sorry." Oliver said, muffled by the hands cradling his nose.

"You're pathetic." He winced at the insult but didn't defend himself. "We'll talk about this in the morning. And for fuck sake, don't leave your room if you look like you've been in a fight. I'll come and see you." Both Oliver and Draco nodded. Allegra started to leave but stopped and turned back. "If either of you have so much as an extra scratch more than you do now when I wake up - _God help you_."

The next morning Allegra woke up in an utterly foul mood. She stomped around her room opening the doors and going into the bathroom to wash. As she dressed she debated who she was going to see first. She threw on a black pair of leggings and a black and white striped t-shirt dress. She made the outfit extra stylish with super-fluffy baby pink socks, but she was comfortable.

Feeling extra smug about her mental magic, she made more effort with her make-up and hair and she looked pretty good from the neck up within a minute. She decided that she blamed Wood a _lot_ more than Malfoy, and so would go and see him while she was still angry. She stomped down the hall to the main bathroom and collected the first aid kit. Then she stormed to Oliver's room and threw the door open. It didn't bang open as she had wanted because it quickly became wedged with a jumper underneath it. _Damn it_. She debated whether to jump him or try a different method of waking him abruptly. Deciding that jumping on him gave too much opportunity to laugh and be friends, she threw open his curtains with magic and light flooded the room, although not as much as Allegra had hoped as the sky outside was grey. Allegra walked over to the sleeping mound as it groaned. Allegra plopped the first aid kit down at the end of the bed and waited for him to sit up. After a lot of dramatic moaning, he finally looked at her.

"Hey," he said sleepily. Allegra growled and put her hands on her hips. He seemed to remember last night and groaned with embarrassment. Allegra narrowed her eyes at the topless man and when he moved his hands away from his face she saw that he hadn't even cleaned the blood off his face. Allegra sighed and went into the en suite, made a mental note to tell Cassia he'd turned the place into a complete tip and wetted a piece of tissue. Oliver had his legs over the edge of the bed and was looking down at the bare floorboards emerging from a crumpled rug by his feet.

Roughly, she pulled his chin towards her and he winced. Allegra cleaned off the blood, a little less aggressively because she could now see the bruises. He had a purple black eye and his nose looked broken. Her eyes betrayed her stern expression by frowning sympathetically. He watched her while she worked. She found it too intimate after what had happened. She was glad she had a first aid kit at hand otherwise there would have been no hope in hiding what had happened from Michael and Cassia, there were no spells she could think of that would hide that kind of bruising.

Oliver looked down at his hands as Allegra searched the first aid kit. He was trying to decide whether he should speak first or not and if so, what he would say. He glanced at her quickly to see if her expression would give him a clue, but it didn't.

First she found some anti-bruise cream and applied it around his eye and bridge of his nose. He winced again but this time she made sure to be gentle.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"Uh huh." Allegra went back to the box and found some painkiller. "This will numb your nose while it fixes."

"It's broken?"

"... Yes." Allegra had wanted to say something sarcastic, but refrained. "Take three mouthfuls."

Oliver swallowed the three mouthfuls and gagged.

"Merlin, what the hell is in that stuff?" she shrugged lazily at the rhetorical question and took the bottle back. "You know I was drunk, right? Really, really drunk."

"Yes, if you had not been I would not be here helping you fix your nose." She handed him a potion which would hopefully mend his broken bone. "Five mouthfuls."

He took five and his face twisted in response.

"Urgh, it's almost not worth it." She shot him a glance that said, _tough_. She read the label again in silence and put the bottle back in the box. She noticed another full tube of bruise cream so got the first one back out. She sighed and pushed the box further onto the bed so that she could sit down. She'd thought about just leaving, but that would have only been to avoid an awkward conversation.

"Why did you start it, Oliver?"

"He threw the first -"

" _You_ started it."

"Because he's a Slytherin, Allegra. And not a Slytherin in the way Blaise is, but a Slytherin who's dad's a Death Eater in Azkaban, and tried to kill your best friends!"

"You don't know him. You don't know him at all, you are just making assumptions based on his family." Allegra said, looking up at him. He was digging his fingers into his shoulder and stretching his arm out.

"And you don't think that those assumptions might be right?"

"No." Oliver looked like he was going to say something else, so she continued. "Look, you have never spoken to him properly. You have never even given him the chance. And then last night you just jumped him – he wasn't even talking to you and you snapped."

"I didn't like what he was doing."

"What? Flirting? Having a laugh? He hadn't crossed any lines – he was just relaxing and finally -"

"Relaxing?"

"Yes. You have no idea how we are around each other. He was just going to be himself but you –"

"If that's how he acts with you then I don't want him –"

"It's not your decision!" Allegra threw her arms up in the air and slid off the bed to pace the room. "Oliver, I love you, but you are not my older brother, or guardian angel, or boyfriend or whatever protective figure you might think of. I like him. He doesn't want to be at home, because for all I know, it's hell on earth there! You have a flat you can go home to if you're going to be trouble."

"That's how it's going to be?"

"Yup."

"I've known you for years and that's how –"

"It's not a case of that, Oliver! If he had done what you'd done I'd be threatening to make him go home too! I do _not_ understand how you thought what you did last night was okay!"

"I don't think it was okay, but I do think you ought to know who you've got following you around."

"I know him, Oliver."

He looked at her for a long moment.

"Then fine. I will pretend last night never happened. Everything will be normal."

"It better be. Please remember that this is my house and my guests. I love you Ollie but if you touch any one of my friends again I'll tie you up and leave you naked in Cassia's bedroom."

Oliver grimaced, "would that scare her, or?"

"Who knows, it would be a nice little surprise, wouldn't it?"

Oliver shook his head, "psychopath."

"Anyway," Allegra handed him the spare tube of cream. "You are going to have to stay up here until eleven. Watch TV or something. I'll bring you breakfast, and you need to re-apply that cream every half hour."

"Okay," Oliver nodded and put his legs back under the covers. Allegra retrieved the medical box and headed out the door.

Allegra pushed her way into Draco's room; it was dark apart from a pale blue glow the daylight made filtering through the curtains. She placed the kit at the end of his bed and climbed on. She steadied herself on the squishy material and then started jumping, throwing the sheets, Draco and the first aid kit all over the place.

"Hey!" He looked up at her and she grinned at him. He grabbed her ankles and pulled them out from under her, Allegra landed in a seat-drop on his bed.

"Hey," she pouted. Draco rolled over and pulled his covers back over his shoulders. With a huff Allegra shuffled off the bed and opened the curtains manually.

"It's eight."

"Point?" Allegra put her hands on her hips.

"We never get up at eight."

"No, but I'm your nurse for this morning, so at least sit up so I can try and make you less ugly." She grimaced at him.

"Oh, yeah ... that's why I can see my lip." He said sitting up and looking down his nose. Allegra rolled her eyes and pulled the first aid kit towards her. It looked as though Draco had lazily cleaned the blood from his split lip, but it wasn't the best job she'd ever seen. Oliver seemed to only just have come out of the fight worse, but Draco still had a busted lip and a lump on his cheekbone the size of a mountain. Allegra rooted around and found some magical dissolving tape for wounds and scabs. She broke off enough for his lip and moved towards him.

"Ah! What are you doing woman?" He put his arm up in defense.

"Fixing you."

"With sticky tape?" he gasped, wriggling backwards.

"No Ugly, it's special tape, look." She showed him the packaging. He read it skeptically and passed it back.

"Alright." Allegra carefully placed the tape over his lip. "Ah, oh, that's strange." Allegra nodded and went back to her box for the painkilling medicine. "It's gone all tingly and tight."

"Can you take three spoonfuls of this?" he took a spoonful and gagged.

"What is this, poison?"

"No, you didn't upset me that much, luckily." He gulped down another two.

"There." He pushed the small brown bottle into her hands. Allegra found the anti-swelling serum and passed it to him.

"More?" he groaned.

"Come on, you've had worse after quidditch." She reasoned.

"Yeah, but they attempt to taste nice."

"Do you want to look like a puffer fish for the next week?"

"No," he mumbled begrudgingly.

"Do you want my dad to see you like this?"

"No."

"Then take the medicine I give you." She watched as he dramatically took the medicine. "Thank you." She retrieved the bruise cream and applied it to his swollen cheek bone and around his eyes and chin. "You need to reapply this every half an hour, and you're not allowed out of your room until at least eleven."

"Why?"

"Because my dad can't see you like this."

"But what will I do for the next," he glanced at the clock, "three hours?" Allegra passed him the two TV remotes from his bedside table. "Oh yeah," he smiled at his two new friends.

"I'll bring you some food in a while. And remember the cream." Allegra took the box and left as a cartoon show sprang to life on the flat screen.

"Ah! Stop it!" Allegra gasped and jumped back from the frying pan, glaring at the bacon sizzling happily. "Stop being mean." Blaise laughed softly behind her and she turned to find him stretching. His dark brown, almost black hair flicked out in random places and his fringe came to a point sticking out about an inch from his left eye. His ears were mostly covered by the mess of dark hair and he ruffled it up with a hand. He grinned and rubbed sleep from his dark blue eyes. He shuffled towards her in a well fitted black t-shirt, indigo slim-fit jeans and a pair of bright pink fluffy socks.

"Oh dear, is the bacon spitting at you again?" He raised his eyebrows and smiled in mock sympathy, "mind you, I'd spit too if someone was cooking me."

"Blaise?"

"Mhm?" He leaned an arm on the work top just out of the hissing bacon's reach.

"Are those my socks?"

"Yeah," he said plainly, taking the fish knife out of her hand and flipped the bacon. "I fancied slippers and thought you wouldn't mind. Besides, pink is _so_ my colour." Allegra laughed at him and jumped up to sit on the worktop. "Do you want me to do the rest of the packet?" Allegra nodded and he emptied the pan onto a plate and loaded it back up. "How are the two patients upstairs?"

"Hopefully on the mend, I'll let them out in a few hours."

"Did you shout?"

"Oliver and I raised our voices."

Allegra jumped down to find some bread.

"What did you say to Draco?"

Allegra opened the bread bin, pulled out the loaf and closed it before answering. "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

Allegra shrugged and put the bag on the counter next to the cooling bacon and went for ketchup. "I couldn't think of anything to say. Besides he didn't apologise and I didn't ask for one. I know he threw the first punch but -"

"He did it for a reason."

Allegra nodded.

"I lectured him - and you - about not getting on with Oliver, and I think it was Ollie's fault this time, don't you?"

Blaise nodded as though it was unquestionable, "obviously."

"I think he's suffered for it without me needing to scold him."

"How so?" Blaise asked. Allegra retrieved a knife and started making bacon sandwiches.

"He's such a baby about his medicine, and he had to take _a lot_." She grinned and Blaise smiled.

"He'll know what he did wrong anyway."

Allegra nodded, "I know."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Blaise looked down at Allegra with a sympathetic expression. So yes, she may have just walked into a door. Yes, it may have caused her to bite the lip she'd been chewing, but it was Blaise's fault. He was stroking an owl that had just flown in through the kitchen window while she was walking towards the hall, and it looked really cute. It had taken her attention and thus Allegra had walked into the kitchen door.

"Geez, Allegra, if you wanted my attention you should have just asked." He said, dabbing a wet tissue on her lip. "It would have been a lot less painful." He smirked and his eyes flickered from her lip to hers and back again. "I didn't realise you'd get jealous of a bird."

"I wasn't," she mumbled, but it came out more like _I wasnaw_.

"I don't blame you; I'd want my attention too. I probably wouldn't have made myself bleed, but each to their own." Allegra groaned. "Don't worry, Gra-Gra, you're still beautiful." He patted her on the top of her head and she kicked him. "That's the thanks I get for calling you beautiful and cleaning your disfigured face?" She smiled sarcastically until it split her lip even more and she stopped.

Oliver and Draco were allowed downstairs a little after eleven, they still looked a little blue and Draco's mouth looked much better than Allegra's now, seeing as she hadn't yet gone to fix it. But at least they all looked good enough that they could tell Mike they'd played a drunken game and not come out of it well.

The day passed easily and Oliver and Draco acted as though nothing had happened, which Allegra praised them for.

The day before she was to leave for the Burrow she had managed to persuade her dad to take them shopping. The best part, Allegra thought, was that she got to be someone else. They didn't have polyjuice potion, but they could change their hair, clothes and eyes, which would be enough. Mike knew about her invisibility cloak and thought that that, along with the fact she could defend herself well, would be enough for a short trip out in a group. Blaise, Draco and Oliver didn't seem to find it quite so exciting at first, but Blaise soon turned to Allegra's way of thinking.

"I want to have, uh, dark red hair! Yeah, and ... Draco's eyes. A full fringe, shoulder length please!" Allegra bounced around in front of her father.

"Alright, if you stop moving I'll do it." Allegra steadied herself while he did it. "There."

"Yay!" She grinned and moved out of the way. Blaise moved forwards next.

"Mouse brown short hair - not too short though, and green eyes, like Allegra's normally are." Blaise stood while Mike changed it. Blaise turned and grinned at Allegra.

"Woahh!" Allegra's eyes went wide and she jumped around. "Do I look different? You look different."

"Yeah, we'll go to the mirror in a minute." Blaise said, resting an arm on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. Mike went to Draco.

"Black short hair and dark brown eyes." He said simply. Mike did it and he went to Allegra. "Am I still hot?"

"Hotter." He frowned but Allegra gave him a thumbs up. Oliver walked out of the bathroom and into the hall.

"Wow, you all look different." He, since he was old enough, had done his himself. His hair was long and blonde and his eyes were dark.

"Ah! Let's go and look in a mirror," Allegra ran into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. Blaise and Draco followed and stood either side of her.

"This is weird." Blaise said, Draco nodded. Allegra stood looking at herself in silence and then cackled in excitement.

"Names! I want to be ... Adriana Kingsford." Blaise and Draco rolled their eyes. She looked at Blaise expectantly.

"Oh, alright, er, Craig Summerton." Allegra smiled and looked at Draco.

"Uh, Owen Hunter."

Oliver and Michael appeared in the doorway, Michael had made his hair an untidy shaggy ginger and his eyes were now stone grey.

"What's your surname?"

"Kingsford."

"Right, then I'm ... Henry Kingsford."

"What about you?" Allegra asked Oliver.

"Tom Mitchell."

"See, easy!" Allegra grinned, "let's go!" She pushed her way out into the hall and the men followed.

"Do you think this is what it would be like if you kept a cheetah in a cage for three weeks while feeding it nothing but sugar and caffeine and then let it out?" Draco said.

"Probably," Oliver nodded.

They flooed to the nearest magical pub and she managed to land somewhat gracefully for once, which was great since there was a group of nineteen or twenty year olds in there. Oliver had left the pub before Allegra had even got there, apparently he had recognised over half of them and legged it before they had a chance to think he was familiar.

"Come on, _Adriana_ ," Draco smirked, following Michael and Blaise.

"Coming, _Owen_ ," she grinned. Blaise rolled his eyes. Outside they found Oliver looking through the window of a quidditch shop.

What do you need, Ali?" Mike asked. Allegra stood looking around blankly. "I mean, Adriana?"

"A present for Harriet and Nevilina."

"Who in holy hell are they?" Draco asked, they all looked at him.

"The Gingerbread Man's wife and the Cookie Monster's wife." He still looked confused. "Anyway, I think we all want to go in here." She gestured at the quidditch shop, "and it's quite likely I can get Harriet something in here."

"Why would a girl want something from there?" Draco asked, and Oliver banged his head against the glass.

"The same reason Adriana would." Blaise said patiently. Mike was grinning as he listened and eyed every passerby.

"Why don't you just give her a Firebolt, you have a bunch."

"Because _she_ _'_ _s_ already _got_ one." Allegra said slowly.

"Oh. _Oh!_ I've realised who _she_ is." They all sighed in relief.

"Thank fuck," Allegra said, shaking her head and walking into the shop.

About an hour later the boy's staying power had disappeared and knowing that she'd got all the shopping she needed to get done, forced herself away from the wizard streets back through the pub and out to a muggle shopping center so they could get a decent sandwich.

She had bought both Neville and Harry a few things each, for Harry, she'd got a quidditch book, a new pair of gloves (they'd all purchased a pair, in fact) a new jumper and a box of sweets. Mike was also getting the team to sign a poster for him. For Neville she had bought a few Herbology books that she hadn't seen him reading and therefore hoped he didn't have, the same box of sweets and some bulbs for a strange plant that looked and sounded pretty cool in her opinion. Not a very Herbology-tuned opinion, but an opinion nonetheless.

Allegra was last to sit down at the sandwich shop and slid into the booth beside Blaise, who like the other boys, was devouring his sandwich like it might disappear at any moment. Allegra ate her sandwich comparatively daintily and sipped on her coke. After they'd finished it was time to go home and Allegra followed the boys reluctantly back home to wait for her next outing: a trip to the Burrow.

Allegra was singing. Loudly. "Today's the day, I'm going to the Burro-"

"I know." Draco sighed, rolling his eyes and rocking back from where he was sitting on her bed. "You've said that, what? Ten thousand times and it's only ten-thirty. Meanwhile, me and Blaise have to stay here with -"

"Don't even say it." Allegra said quickly, turning to give him a stern look from where she was digging around in one of her drawers.

"I wasn't going to," Draco said with mock offence, "I was going to say the English quidditch team."

"That's what I thought." Allegra turned her back and went back to packing. She'd been packing really quickly before Draco had decided to keep her company, the clothes had simply packed themselves. But now she had to do it _manually_. Yuck.

"Then why did you say -" Allegra shot him another look and he smirked.

"I'll write to you guys, and you have to write back every day."

"I'd like to think that's because you'll miss me so much that I'll be on your mind all the time, but I won't kid myself." He slid of the bed and started strolling around the room.

"Well, you will be on my mind twenty-four-seven." She threw a can of deodorant into a travel bag on her bed.

"Okay, then I won't kid myself that it's not because you're worrying that I'll have another fight." Allegra scoffed and went into the closet to flick through a rail of dresses. Draco wandered in and started looking though her clothes. "So you'll definitely be back in three days?"

"Yes, three days from now, I'll be back."

Allegra fell out of the fireplace, coughing up half the ash from all the fireplaces she'd passed.

"Oh, ew," she complained, standing up to brush herself down.

"Allegra!" Molly said so suddenly and with such excitement that Allegra jumped out of her skin. "Oh, Allegra dear, look at you! You've grown so much since I last saw you, skinny as the rest of them I see," she shook her head momentarily.

"Molly, I saw you at the train station."

"Oh, you must tell me all about your trip to visit Charlie," before she had time to finish Hermione had latched onto Allegra.

"Oh my goodness, Allegra," Hermione said, "I'm so glad you're here."

"I thought I could hear mum's excitement," Allegra heard Ron say, and she smiled at him once Hermione let go.

"How is everyone?" Allegra asked.

Hermione looked at her urgently, "let's go upstairs fir-"

"Allegra?"

"Fleur?" The graceful young woman stepped into the room.

"Oh my goodness! Thank god you are 'ere! It gets a little boring alone." Fleur said. Allegra laughed awkwardly as Hermione muttered "alone?" from behind her with a certain venom to it.

"You'll be staying with Ginny and Hermione, Allegra," Molly said. "We'll be having lunch in a few minutes. Ginny can you help me set the table?"

"What? I want to go and talk to Allegra," Ginny moaned.

"I know you do, love, but you'll have a chance to -"

"Don't worry, Molly, I'll 'elp with lunch so Ginny can catch up with Allegra." Fleur said and a smile flickered on Ginny's lips.

"Thanks," she smiled, giving Allegra a push to say get-out-while-we-still-can.

Hermione dragged Ron and Harry up stairs away from Fleur and Allegra and Ginny followed.

Inside Ginny's room her bed had been wedged up against the window, a large single with the covers thrown open like she'd just got out. Next to it was Hermione's perfectly made bed, with a book and some pyjamas at the foot. A little way away and close enough to the door that when they opened it it hit the bed, was Allegra's bed. At the moment Hermione's suitcase seemed to be occupying it, with some bedding at the top folded where the pillows would usually be, and on top of that Crookshanks was waking up as the noise of teenagers filled the room. Allegra had sent Midnight ahead that morning and she was now perched with Pig and Errol at the top of one very large wardrobe, eyeing Crookshanks reproachfully.

Ginny went in first, apparently to kick any dirty laundry that had been on the floor under the beds so that the two boys didn't see, and then climbed over her bed to sit in the wide window seat on a sky blue pillow. Allegra followed and sat at the top of Ginny's bed, Hermione sat opposite at the top of hers, and Ron and Harry settled on each.

"So, how have your holidays been so far?" Allegra asked. Ginny and Hermione gave her detailed accounts of theirs, Harry shrugged and smiled after saying it's been good since he's been at the Burrow, and Ron said a simple "yeah, good" with his usual crooked grin. Allegra then told them all about her holiday with Charlie, skipping over the fact that Draco and Blaise were currently at her house. That - that she was saving for just the girls.

"Dad got promoted!" Ginny blurted out.

"Wow, that's great!" Allegra smiled, "what does he do now?"

"Uh, the Detection and Confiscation of ..." Ron faded off, his face twisted in deep thought.

"Of Counterfeit Spells and ..." Ginny tired but the same expression appeared on her features, it was the most alike the two had looked since Ron was ten.

Hermione huffed loudly, "he's Head of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Spells and Protective Objects. You two have the memory of a goldfish."

Allegra smiled and rolled her eyes, "sounds like something he'll enjoy, anyway."

"I guess your dad told you about Bill and Fleur, then?" Ron said, pulling a loose hair off his sleeve.

"Of course," Allegra smiled, they all grimaced. "But you don't like her." Ginny shook her head.

"She's so stuck up," she vented.

"The boys don't mind, of course," Hermione said, "they all become dumbstruck when she walks in the room." Ron gave a little grunt of protest.

"She's not that bad," Allegra said, and Ginny raised an eyebrow challengingly.

"Allegra, you might be able to get on with prissy perfect girls -"

"I don't!"

"- but I can't."

"You are one." Ginny frowned and hit Allegra in the arm playfully. "Look, I just think that if she can get through the Tri-Wizard Tournament she's probably tougher than you think."

"I can see your point," Hermione said in a tone that suggested that if she did see it, she didn't like it.

Ginny made a loud noise of frustration, "you have the same view as Harry."

"Wow, Harry, like - we should so be best friends," Allegra said in an overly girly voice.

"Oh my god, we have like, so much in common!" Harry mimicked, causing even the stubborn girls to laugh.

Ginny sighed at the end of her laughter, "I just wish it was Tonks instead."

Ron groaned and lolled his head back onto the wall, "Ginny, we've had this conversation before."

"I know, but it's true." She grumbled, looking out the window.

"Have you seen Tonks lately?" Harry asked and Allegra shook her head.

"No, why?"

"She looks awful." Hermione whispered.

"That's not very nice."

"No, as in, her hair is all a dull brown and she looked really tired all the time." Ron said softly.

"Oh, is it not because -"

"We're not sure." Hermione cut in. "We thought so at first but it's been weeks. She loved Sirius but ... well, she's getting worse."

Allegra frowned, that didn't sound like the Tonks she knew. "Is she here often?"

"Mum keeps having her over for dinner," Ginny said. "I think she's hoping Bill will fall for her instead of Phlegm."

Allegra burst out laughing, "is that what you've been calling her?" Ginny nodded proudly. Allegra shook her head and sat back with an amused smile, "anyway, yeah, maybe I'll try talking to her."

"Good luck, she's been really reserved. She's no fun anymore." Ron said.

"Did Dumbledore give you your present?" Harry said, suddenly looking up as he remembered.

"Oh, yeah," Allegra nodded and grinned. "It's not as good as yours, obviously, but it's still pretty damn cool. Fit two of us I reckon."

"Enlighten us?" Hermione said.

"Dumbledore gave me an invisibility cloak."

"Really? That's a good idea."

"Yeah, it's so if I get into a problem I can just ... disappear."

"Yes!" Ron exclaimed with his fists in the air, "now we don't have to squeeze under Harry's."

Allegra turned and looked at Ginny intently. "Gin, there's something I want to show you." Hermione smiled at Allegra, and knocked Ginny's table lamp onto the floor where it shattered.

"Hey!" Ginny protested.

"Allegra," Hermione smiled. The lamp put itself back together and sat on the bedside table as though it had never happened.

"Was that you?" Ginny asked, her expression half shock half grin. Allegra nodded. "Wow, that's pretty cool."

"She's a Mentalist," Hermione said and then faced Allegra, "I've been doing some research."

"What's that?" Ginny asked.

"It means she can perform magic without a wand, need to speak verbally or even think of the incantation. It just happens."

"And that's the problem," Allegra said, "apart from the fact that it sounds like I'm an escaped mental patient, it's hard to keep a hold on."

"You best keep this to yourself," Ron told his sister.

"Oh, and who am I going to tell?" She scoffed.

Fleur opened the door and stuck her head in.

"Lunch is readee," she smiled and Allegra stood up, her stomach had been rumbling since she had arrived.

"Great, let's go eat." Allegra eagerly pushed Harry out of the room and the others followed.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Face it Ginny, we beat you." Allegra smiled smugly and then shared the smugness with Ron behind her.

"It wasn't fair," Ginny huffed unconvincingly.

"How? You had one more player than us." Ron said.

"Hermione doesn't count." Ginny smiled at Hermione to say she was at least a little bit joking.

"Basically," Ron smirked as Harry rolled his eyes and pushed him through the open front door with the end of his broom. "You should have won, but you didn't. Allegra and I are just awesome. Nothing else to it." Hermione scoffed loudly; Ron jumped at her and squeezed her hard while they laughed and giggled. Allegra and Ginny exchanged a glance. Molly and Fleur were leaning against the stove, it looked as though Fleur was telling her a long and apparently uninteresting story. Molly occasionally grunted, and they moved through quickly so Molly wouldn't catch them. Ron and Hermione were still messing around when they go to the living room so ignoring them, Ginny, Allegra and Harry carried on up the old wooden stairs.

"How long have they been like _that_ for?" Allegra asked.

"Pretty much since Hermione got here. They got a little better when Harry got here but apparently you just make them worse."

"Oh goody."

"What's good?" Harry asked, following behind Allegra.

"I make Ron and Hermione's flirting worse." Allegra said plainly, Harry made a choking noise behind her.

"They were flirting?" Ginny laughed heartily as she stepped onto the dim landing to wait for Allegra and Harry.

"Harry, how clueless _are_ you?"

Harry flushed.

"Talking of couples," Allegra moved on, "have you seen Dean at all?" Harry furrowed his brows and stepped up onto the landing where the floorboards creaked. Clearly uncomfortable with the turn of conversation, he peered down the stairs for any sign of the other two, which there wasn't.

"Twice," Ginny said flatly, playing with peeling paint on her door. "It gets a bit awkward, though." Ginny was obviously not worried about sharing her relationship troubles with Harry, who looked like he wanted to apparate.

"Why?" Allegra asked, not taking any notice of Harry.

"Because we can't do anything." Allegra looked confused. "What I mean is, we only started going out two weeks before school finished, so although we've been going out for almost two months technically, we are actually only on week three. And not being able to go out sort of limits the possibilities for dates."

"I think Ron and Hermione must have been caught by Molly and Fleur," Harry said.

"I see," Allegra nodded.

"So we end up just in his room the whole time, or outside." Allegra caught sight of Harry's shoulders tensing and relaxing as Ginny spoke. "Which is alright, but there's a lot of pressure to be further in the relationship than we really are."

"Obviously."

"Maybe you should just not go to Dean's then," Harry said, managing to keep the irritated tone out of his voice.

"Well you'll see him at mine, so the pressure will be off then. Oh - that reminds me, when we have a spare moment you, me and 'Mione need to do the invitations. They just need putting together and names written on, Cassia's done the rest."

"Cool, that will be fun, we should do that tonight." She peered down the stairs to look for the two missing members of the group. "I guess you're right, Harry, mum must have caught them, we might as well carry on up and wait in your room." Harry led the way looking half pleased to be moving and half worried that he'd be stuck with the girl-talk until the other two showed up, which knowing Molly, could be hours. "Anyway," Ginny continued, following Harry up the stairs, who sighed as she started again. "He has the most annoying little sister. When I first met her I thought she was really cute, she's only six, but oh, she doesn't understand that we don't _play_ like she wants us to." Allegra thought she heard Harry retch. "She just doesn't leave. So even if Dean and I want to take a walk or something she wants to play tag or something. I think her mum must have breastfed her coffee."

"She really bugs you, doesn't she?" Allegra asked sarcastically.

"Yep," Ginny laughed.

"Do you want me to do some for your Slytherins? Obviously Blaise always comes but ... the new one?" Hermione had her hand poised in front of an invitation. Allegra froze from where she had been writing Pavarti's name and looked up at the two girls.

"Well, actually, yes they are invited, but no, you don't need to do one for them."

"Okay," they both frowned at her, "why does that sound so suspicious?"

"Because," Allegra swallowed, "they are already at my house."

Ginny's eyes narrowed, "what?"

"They've been staying with me since I got back from Romania."

" _How long?_ "

"Look, Draco's been having a hard time -"

"That's not hard to imagine." Hermione said.

"- and so I said to him that if he needed to come and stay, he could, and he did - has - is."

"And you think that's a good idea with Harry and Ron?" Ginny said.

"Well it's going to have to be," Allegra shrugged. "It might not be fun for him or us with everyone else there, but it's a big house, he can get out of the way. I'm not making him go home to god-knows-what."

"Well, that's fine, but I'm not sure how Harry and Ron will feel about it." Allegra just looked at Hermione. "Allegra, you have to tell them!"

"I will."

" _Before_ we leave!"

"Damn." Allegra finished Pavarti's invitation. "I'll tell them once we've packed."

"Alle-"

"Alright! I'll tell them while they're packing." Hermione still wasn't sure of this, but she left it.

On Harry's birthday Hermione woke the girls up far too early. Allegra got up reluctantly, knowing full well Ron would be upstairs snoring away and Harry would have pushed one pillow off the bed and only be half covered by his light blue sheets.

"Come on, motivation!" Hermione said. "It's going to be a long day."

She eventually managed to have both Allegra and Ginny up, dressed and ready with their presents and pushed them up to Ron's attic bedroom. As predicted, the two boys were in the exact positions Allegra had imagined except Ron wasn't snoring for once and actually had his mouth closed.

Hermione turned to them and mouthed _three, two, one ..._

"Happy birthday, Harry!" they cheered. Harry jolted upright, his sleepy eyes settled on the three blurry figures and then he slumped back down in his pillow without so much as a thanks.

Ron cleared his throat and gave a gruff, "happy birthday, mate."

Ginny took it upon herself to wake Harry up properly. Sitting on him only made him groan so she managed to shove him off the bed and onto the floor.

"We come bearing gifts, you ungrateful sod." She sat down and folded her legs on top of his bed.

Harry reappeared with a yawn. "Alright." Ginny shoved a present into his hands, he thanked her and started opening it. "So what's happening today?"

"Mum's got a sort-of tea party planned, I think." Ron said, sitting up and pulling his covers around him. He patted the bed either side of him to beckon Allegra and Hermione to join him.

"After that we need to pack and we are leaving here to go to Allegra's at ..." Ginny said.

"Seven." Allegra supplied.

"Getting settled there for the party tomorrow," Hermione finished.

"Thanks, Gin, these are great," Harry smiled and gave Ginny a hug. She had gotten him a few small bits that involved sweets, a couple of small things from Fred and George's shop and a friendship bracelet made out of various shades of dark coloured thread. Ginny had a creative streak which was always useful when you needed to whip up a present on a budget and/or time limit.

Harry had loved the rest of his gifts from the Weasleys, Hermione, Fleur and Allegra. More presents were expected later in the post or at least from Harry's tea party guests that afternoon.

Remus Lupin had been the first to arrive. As soon as he arrived the five teenagers exchanged glances. Allegra hadn't seen Remus in a good while, apart from the brief glance she got before the summer at the Ministry, but even allowing for the time he looked pretty rough and worn out. His skin - usually peachy with a healthy glow - had turned grey and gaunt looking, the dark purple circles around his eyes were almost the shade of plums and his normally mouse brown hair had become dull and grey stricken. His usual casual yet smart clothes were disheveled.

"Hello, Remus," Allegra smiled when he sat down in an armchair nearby.

"Allegra," he smiled, his tone alone was already telling her not to pry. "It seems like I have barely seen you, how are you?"

"Well, thank you." Remus's eyes dropped to the floor. "But I think the question is, how are you?"

"Well." He answered blandly, avoiding eye contact.

"Really?" Remus looked up and saw disbelief in her features. He sighed deeply and rubbed a scarred hand over his face.

"The world is a tough place at the moment, Allegra, that's all."

Tonks never did come to the party, in fact - to Molly's dismay - it ended up being a bit of a cop-out. Mostly because people came, sincerely apologised to Harry and Molly for not being able to stay, and then had to leave. Harry wasn't worried, but Molly was upset all the same. Tonks did send a note promising to visit Harry in the next few days while he was at Allegra's, when she had a moment or two to spare.

Molly had made Harry an incredible cake in the shape of a dragon, and she'd cut every scale from icing and put it all together. While the delicious cake was being passed out (and Ron was excited to find out that since a lot of guests had been unable to come there was enough for seconds and thirds) Remus told everyone about the latest dementor attacks.

"There have been more dementor attacks," he announced as Molly passed him a large chunk of tail. "And they've found Igor Karkaroff's body in a shack up north. The Dark Mark had been set over it - well, frankly, I'm surprised he stayed alive for even a year after deserting the Death Eaters; Sirius's brother Regulus only managed a few days as far as I can remember."

"Yes, well," Molly said looking a little uncomfortable, "perhaps we should talk about something diff-"

"Did you hear about Florean Fortescue, Remus?" Bill asked, who had taken a breather from Fleur as she refilled his glass of wine. Again.

They were getting married, she didn't need to get him drunk.

"The man who ran -"

"- the ice-cream place in Diagon Alley?" Harry interrupted, looking a little upset. "He used to give me free ice-cream, what's happened to him?"

"Dragged off, by the look of his place."

"Maybe the Death Eaters just really love ice-cream," Allegra shrugged. Ginny seemed to find the mental image of Death Eaters shoveling down strawberry ice-cream hilarious.

"Why?" Ron asked. Molly was glaring at Bill pointedly.

"Who knows? He must've upset them somehow. He was a good man, Florean."

"Talking of Diagon Alley," Arthur started, "looks like Ollivander's gone too."

"The wand maker?" Ginny said, startling her from her laughter.

"That's the one. Shop's empty. No sign of a struggle. No one knows whether he left voluntarily or was kidnapped."

"But wands - what will people do for wands?"

"They'll make do with other makers," Remus said. "But Ollivander was the best, and if the other side have got him it's not so good for us."

A few hours later they were all packing to leave for Allegra's.

"Have you guys got everything?" Allegra asked as her clothes finished folding themselves and the zip flew around the suitcase.

"Yeah, Allegra can you finish doing mine?" Ginny asked eagerly, looking at her empty suitcase.

"Sure," Allegra smiled and the pile of clothes began folding and packing away neatly. Hermione was busy working away, she insisted on doing it herself manually, simply so she would know where everything in her trunk was. When they were done they stood to go and see how the boys were doing.

"You have to tell them now," Hermione said.

"I know," Allegra sighed, climbing the ladder to Ron's room.

The boys were nowhere near done. In fact, it looked as though they had just taken everything out of their drawers and thrown them all on the floor and were just packing anything within reach.

"Boys," Hermione breathed, "what have you done?"

"We're packing," Ron said obviously.

"Um, do you guys want some help?" Allegra asked and they nodded vigorously. The boys breathed in relief and sat down. "So, there's something I need to warn you about."

"What is it?" Harry asked, already sounding suspicious.

"Well, there may already be some other guests there when we arrive."

"Some for the party?" Ron asked.

"Well, no, not exac-"

"It's Blaise Zambini and Draco Malfoy," Ginny said.

"WHAT?" They said in unison.

"Look, it's a long story and I can explain once we get there."

" _How the hell did this happen?_ "

"Blaise always comes to stay."

" _Not him_ ," Ron said. "The _other_ one."

"I said he could." They both stared at her. "He's not having a good time at home -"

"Shocker."

"- so I said he could come and stay if he needed. And, well, he needed."

"And you expect us to come and stay with them?" Harry said.

Allegra smirked.

"I know you will. It's your birthday party, all of your friends are coming, it's a big house so you don't need to see them and if you don't, you'll be here doing chores instead of there playing quidditch, watching films, going for a swim ..."

"Alright. But if -"

"No, no." Allegra put her hand up to stop him. "There are to be no threats of anything for anything from either side. And I'll let you know that they have both been impeccably behaved apart from one badly-behaved-Oliver incident." They all looked at her. "I'll elaborate once we're there and I know that there haven't been anymore badly-behaved-Oliver incidents." Allegra glanced at the clock as Harry's trunk and Ron's suitcase finished packing. "Right, I told them we'd be flooing between seven and seven-fifteen, so unless we want something bad to happen we better get moving."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Allegra emerged from her own fireplace, last out of the five into the living room.

"I always forget how big this place is," Ginny said.

"Come on," Allegra said, leading them out into the entrance hall. "DAD! CASSIA!"

"Such a beautiful voice," Draco said from the top of the stairs. Draco and Blaise smiled at her and ran their eyes over the others. Allegra frowned at him.

"It's the only one I've got. DAAADDD!"

"Ah! Ali," Blaise led Draco down the stairs and opened the door to Mike's office. "Try again now."

"DAAADDDD!"

"Allegra," Mike appeared quickly. "I thought it was a banshee." Oliver appeared behind him. Draco and Blaise looked very at home in tight tees and sweat pants.

Draco nodded curtly at the four other teens, "Gryffindors." Blaise smiled at them.

"Slytherins." Ron, Ginny and Hermione replied with the same courtesy. Harry nodded his head ever so slightly and then averted his gaze.

"How was it?" Mike asked.

"It was great, thank -"

"Everyone arrived safely?"

"Yes, we -"

"Did you see Remus? He popped round a few days ago."

"Yeah," Allegra sighed and smiled. She probably could have said they had all turned into dragons and he wouldn't have noticed. He gave Allegra a brief hug and moved towards the others.

"Where's Cassia?" Allegra asked.

"Making Harry a birthday cake, I believe. Ron! My goodness, you've grown about two feet since I last saw you, almost as tall as Fred and George now." Mike's voice bounced off the walls and seemed to echo down the corridors. If Cassia hadn't heard Allegra screeching, she'd hear him.

"Er, yeah," Ron blushed sheepishly as Mike gave him a hug.

"Is that you, Ginny?" Ginny nodded with a big grin. "You've turned into a little woman!" Allegra groaned in embarrassment, Oliver scoffed and patted her shoulder sympathetically.

"Harry! How are you?"

"Fine, thank you, Mike," he said, shaking his hand.

"Happy birthday, by the way! I have a few little presents of my own to give you, but we'll handle that later." Mike winked and grinned.

"And finally the beautiful Hermione," Hermione blushed and made a few little noises, "it's good to see you again."

"And you."

Cassia had prepared lots of finger foods and a beautiful cake that Oliver, Draco and Blaise happily devoured, as the other five that had been at Harry's afternoon party were quite full enough (although Ron did give it all his best). Mike was definitely enjoying all the company, he loved a full house.

"Allegra, do you want to show everyone where they will be sleeping tonight? I presume you've planned it."

"Yeah, follow me you lot." They got up and followed her out and collected their bags from the hall and followed her up the black and white marble staircase and into the upstairs hall. "Okay, so we are all sharing rooms because otherwise when everyone stays tomorrow night you'd all have to move anyway, so we'll just share tonight." The nodded. "Oh, apart from you, Ginny, you get your own room for the whole time."

"Yes!" She grinned and they looked at her with amused expressions. "No offense, you guys, but I share at school and I've been sharing at home, I'm ready for some alone time."

"None taken," Hermione smiled.

"Okay, follow me." They picked up their bags and followed Allegra to the first door on the right, the door before Allegra's. Allegra opened the door for them and Ginny went inside with her bags. The room was the smallest bedroom in the house, but that didn't mean the room was small. It was a standard sized room with a small double bed, wardrobe, drawers and a desk. The room was a mixture of red and cream.

"Ooo, this is nice." Ginny dropped her bags by the bed and looked around. "Does the TV work?" She looked at the - slightly more moderately sized - TV on the wall at the end of her bed.

"Yeah, they're all connected up to something called a satellite? I'm not sure what it is, but it makes the TVs work."

Ginny sat down on her crimson covers and the bed bounced a little. "I don't think I'm ever going to leave."

"Well, unfortunately you don't have your own bathroom so you'll have to leave for that."

"Oh, no." She said sarcastically. Allegra turned back to the others.

"That's Oliver's room," she pointed to the door opposite hers and Ginny's. "So if you need him, he's there." She walked along to the next room on the left and swung the door open to reveal a cream bathroom with all the usual fixtures and fittings. "This is your closest bathroom, Gin." Ginny stuck her head out of her room and nodded. Allegra walked along to the next door on the left. "This is your room, guys," she opened a door to reveal a green, gold and cream coloured room. It had two almost-double sized beds. Harry was quick to get the bed closest to the windows, not that Ron looked particularly bothered about having the other. "You can either use the same bathroom as Ginny or there's another one down the hall, last door on the right." Allegra and Hermione walked back to her door and went inside. "You're the lucky one," she grinned at Hermione. "You get to share my bed."

Cassia had been in and cleaned, and Midnight wasn't there, but Allegra suspected she'd be wherever Draco and Blaise's owls were. The silver animals on the wallpaper looked very excited by the new visitor and were parading around the walls like they were brand new.

"So you got the short straw, really." Allegra continued. Hermione shrugged dismissively. Crookshanks mewed loudly from the wicker cat basket still in her hands.

"Can I let him out? He's getting restless." Allegra nodded.

"Do you think he'd sleep in Ginny's room? Midnight sleeps in here and they don't exactly ... mesh."

"Yeah, or at least he'll have to." Crookshanks strolled out and stretched, making himself right at home and slowly strutted out the open door.

"Cassia will like him."

"This is where it all begins, Blaise my friend." Draco said as Allegra helped the two of them move Blaise's possessions into Draco's room where they would be sharing until his room was free again.

"I know. We better start digging trenches and barricading the doors." Allegra rolled her eyes as she struggled in through the door with a huge suitcase.

"It's not going to be that bad you two." Allegra dropped the suitcase on the floor and it fell open, spilling an array of unfolded and creased clothes onto the floor. Allegra looked from it to Blaise.

"Well I wasn't going to pack it all up just to move across the hall, was I?" He said grinning.

"You could have at least done it up properly." He just grinned wider.

"Anyway," Allegra picked up an armful of clothes and dumped them at the end of the bed. "How was it without me here?"

"Great," Draco said, glancing up at the freshly signed quidditch posters on his wall. "I mean - it was terrible, we missed you so much." Allegra raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't have expected you to."

"Woke up at eleven, went to play quidditch all day." Blaise said, picking up a t-shirt and smelled the arm-pit of it. "Clean."

"Eww." Allegra grimaced.

"It's just the clean test," Draco smirked, brushing blonde hair out of his eyes.

"I don't think I'll use that test." Allegra wrinkled her nose and climbed onto Draco's bed.

"Your loss." He shrugged. "So how many people are actually coming tomorrow?"

Allegra pulled a loose thread on the bed as she thought. "I'm not actually sure. A lot."

"Anyone we talk to?" Blaise asked, shoving his 'clean' clothes into a drawer Draco had given him.

"Probably not."

"Good. We didn't want to know anyone."

Allegra sighed, "you said you didn't mind."

"No, we don't." Draco said. "Blaise is just messing with you." Blaise raised his eyebrows at Draco behind his long dark side-swept hair.

"Well they won't pick fights with you because I'll kick them out for the dementors to find." The boys smiled widely at her.

"Aww, you do love us!" Blaise said.

"Of course I do. The only thing that worries me is the potential ... alcohol factor."

"Pfft, like anyone will get drunk," Draco scoffed sarcastically.

"I'm expecting, drama, comedy, entertainment." Blaise mused, shoving another mess of fabric into the drawer. Allegra glanced at the clock.

"I need to get back to Hermione," she yawned.

"Alright," Draco nodded as she slipped off the bed.

"See you ladies later."

Allegra was lying on her back like a starfish in the middle of the living room when Ginny and Hermione came to join her. The boys and her dad had gone out to play quidditch before it was time to get ready for the party, but Allegra thought it was probably so they didn't have to help get anything ready. The three girls had been helping Cassia prepare until about five o'clock when she decided none of them were doing anything right and sent them off to amuse themselves.

"I'm bored now," Allegra stated for the sixteenth time in the last half an hour.

"So you've told us." Ginny sighed, and continued playing with the TV controls.

"People will start arriving in five minutes or so, Ali, so just be patient." Hermione said, studying a book she'd found in the library that morning, only looking up to see the time.

"Yeah, well, I'm not really very patient."

"Wow, thanks for clearing that up for me." Ginny said sarcastically and turned the TV off after realising that although there may be over five-hundred channels, that doesn't necessarily mean there's anything to watch.

"How do we know when someone gets here, anyway?" Hermione asked, putting a piece of scrappy parchment in the book to act as a bookmark and closed it.

"We won't unless we go to find them, or they shout."

"Then why are you lying on the floor moaning, when someone may have got here already?" Ginny asked.

"Because I have the supersonic hearing of a bat; I can hear anything."

Ginny and Hermione rolled their eyes in sync.

"Come on, let's go and wait in the hall, then, Batman." Hermione smiled. They went out into the hall and as Allegra had known, no one had arrived yet. They sat on the left staircase and after a few minutes of chatting and playful banter, the fireplace seemed to make a low rattling noise and hum a little.

"Someone's coming," Hermione said, standing up. Allegra and Ginny copied her and waited looking at the humming fireplace. The noise grew and then suddenly Seamus appeared, looking a little disgruntled by the method of travel.

"Urgh, should have flown." He noticed the three girls and smiled. "Hello ladies, how are you all?"

They greeted Seamus but it was only when she gestured for him to follow that he actually saw his surroundings.

"You didn't say we were staying in a hotel, Allegra."

"We're not," Ginny said, giving him a push to get him moving.

"This is your house?" Allegra nodded without turning around. "Well, I guess I should have thought of it, you're dad's a pretty important bloke, he's not going to live in a shed."

Allegra ignored him and led him upstairs, along past her room to the last room on the left, just past Ron and Harry's. The room was just like theirs, only the colour scheme was cream and brown.

"You're sharing with Dean," Allegra said as he set his bags down on the bed closest to the window, "hope you don't mind."

"Of course not." He said, admiring the enormous television.

"The bathroom's right across the hall." He nodded, finding the remotes.

"I guess we'll leave you to ... unpack, then." Hermione said.

They backed out of the room.

Seamus didn't notice.

Back downstairs Fred and George had arrived.

"There you are." George smiled and picked up his bags, noticing the three girls at the top of the stairs. Fred followed his brother up the stairs and they showed the twins to their room.

The next to arrive was Dean, who Ginny took to his room, and then the Patil twins arrived. Allegra found it somewhat awkward because despite deciding to invite them both, she didn't really know Padma very well and Padma was going to be leaving that evening rather than staying like her sister.

The last guests who were staying arrived; first Lavender, Neville, and Angelina.

Then it was time to get ready.

Despite bringing their own dresses, Hermione and Ginny both decided to borrow one from Allegra's closet. Allegra chose a simple little black dress, Hermione chose a similar royal blue dress and Ginny chose a flirty prom-style floral dress.

Allegra and Ginny straightened their hair and Hermione tamed her curls. They helped each other with their make-up.

They were all ready by eight, when the rest of the guests were to arrive. Cassia had come up to see them briefly to tell her that she was going out, her dad had already gone and if there was an emergency Oliver was in charge.

Lots of people had been invited, but as Hermione predicted not many of them came. No matter how safe Allegra's house may be, it was no guarantee that people would come or be allowed to come. Cho and Marietta had shown up, only invited out of mere politeness, but Cho even had the cheek to sneer at Allegra across the hall before being shown down the hall to the den by Fred. It may be Harry and Neville's party but it was Allegra's house. Most of the Gryffindors invited came, and Blaise and Draco strolled into the den towards Allegra, smirking.

"What have you done?" Allegra asked.

"Nothing." Blaise answered innocently, but then scanned the room with the same amused grin.

"Oh, you are actually going to have fun, aren't you?"

"Oh yeah," Blaise nodded.

"May I say, Ali, that you look pretty darn hot in that dress I picked." Draco smiled, eyes wandering up and down a little too much. Blaise looked at Allegra with a raised eyebrow. Allegra flushed.

"Oh really?" She said cooly, trying to ignore Blaise's obvious expression and the fact that Draco had recognised the dress that he'd found in her closet. "I'd forgotten."

Neither of them looked fooled.

"I have to set up the bar," she said, quickly turning on her heels and walking towards Oliver and the bar.

Hermione stumbled over to Allegra at about ten.

"She won't stop looking at him," she said frowning.

"Who won't stop looking at who, 'Mione?" Allegra scanned the room.

"Lavender. She won't stop looking at Ron."

"Are you sure?" She looked at Lavender who was clearly occupied with Pavarti and their reign of terror, being loud and dramatic and trying to get everyone to dance.

"Yes." Hermione wobbled a little. "And he looks back."

"I think the alcohol's playing with your pretty little head." Allegra smiled, brushing Hermione's hair out of her face for her.

"He doesn't look at me." She said, ignoring what Allegra said.

"Why don't you go and talk to him, then he won't have time to look at her." Hermione frowned and took a gulp of her drink. Oliver walked up behind Allegra and smiled at Hermione. She glanced at him and made off in Ron's direction, who was playing pool with Dean, Harry and Seamus. Ginny was watching and looking pissed off.

"Does she not like me?" Oliver asked, taking Hermione's place in front of Allegra. He leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets.

"No, she does, but she's a complete lightweight -"

"More than you?"

"- and so she seems to think Lavender is getting a thing for Ron."

"You don't, then?"

"Not really. But I haven't been staring at Ron all night." Oliver chuckled.

"Have you given Neville his plant yet?" He looked over at Neville who was talking to Padma, Cho and Marietta.

"Yeah, he thought it was funny. I think that's a good thing."

"Oliver! Come dance with me!" Angelina exclaimed and fell towards them. Allegra rolled her eyes and smiled. "Allegra!" she threw her arms out violently and wrapped them around her. "I haven't seen you in so long! I'm so glad you invited me." She squeezed her harder.

"I'm glad you're here!" Allegra said, trying to match Angelina's enthusiasm.

"You know, your Hogwarts letters are coming soon, I just know you or Harry are going to get Quidditch Captain."

"Oh, don't you choose?"

"Nah," she blinked out of sync. "I just put my best players forward, McGonagall and Hooch decide on ability and behaviour. Come on, Ollie!" She said suddenly, tearing the man from the wall and over to where others were dancing.

A few hours later things were getting a little out of hand.

"Did you just see that?" Ginny said, appearing from nowhere.

"See what?" Allegra asked from where she was talking to Harry.

"Pavarti and Seamus."

"What about them?"

"They just kissed."

"Really?" Allegra asked skeptically.

"Yeah, apparently - since I was talking to Seamus since Dean doesn't seem to know I'm here," Allegra and Harry exchanged a glance, "they've been writing all summer, and he thinks he might actually like her."

"Really?" Harry said.

"Uh huh." She nodded. "What?!" She exclaimed so suddenly that Allegra and Harry jumped out of their skin. "So he can make time to talk to Cho, but not me? That's it." She huffed and took off like a steam train towards Cho and Dean.

"I think there's about to be a scene." Harry nodded in agreement.

"I wouldn't want to be Cho or Dean right now." Harry said. "She may be beautiful, but she has her mother's temper."

Sure enough, an argument broke out between the lovers.

"It won't last, she gives in as easily as dad," Ron said, walking towards the two of them looking disheveled.

"What happened to you, mate?" Harry said.

"Women. They just won't leave me alone." Allegra laughed. "Allegra, you can dance with me without people thinking we're about to go upstairs. Please?"

"Okay, but only if we use this term 'dance' loosely."

They danced together for a while, and it did seem to keep the jealous females at bay.

"Harry seems to think Draco has a hidden agenda." He told Allegra on their third song. Allegra sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Why? He's not doing anything." Ron shrugged. "I don't know, but he thinks something's wrong."

Draco and Blaise watched the party from the bar. The whole thing had turned into some kind of soap opera. Very entertaining.

"Do you like her?" Blaise asked Draco, nodding towards Allegra, who was chatting with George.

"Who?" Draco said, he had been watching the argument between Dean and Ginny which was still going, and by the look on Cho's face she was enjoying it, despite telling everyone and anyone that she felt terrible for causing it.

"Ali."

"Yes, you know I do."

"No, I mean _like like_ her." Blaise was watching Draco closely.

"Okay, without even needing to give you an answer, could you imagine? It would be completely impossible. A, she's Gryffindor and I'm Slytherin, and B," he looked at Blaise with a look that carried such weight that Blaise knew exactly what he was referencing, "well, you know."

"I do." Blaise nodded. "But that doesn't answer the question."

"It does for me." Draco said.

The night went on and the drunk got drunker. The party spread out over other parts of the house and as Allegra was getting tired some people decided to take a dip in the pool. Shortly after some people staying went up to bed but Allegra had to wait to help those going home use the Floo network. Blaise and Draco sat in the hall with her until everyone had gone.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"I'm regretting doing this," Allegra told Blaise as they lounged by the pool. It was the first time the sun had managed to break through the overhanging mist in weeks, and it seemed to be making up for lost time by frying the countryside.

"I'm regretting you did this, too." He said, glancing over his aviator sunglasses. Draco cannon-balled into the pool just in front of them sending a spray of frothy water over their feet. "Draco you dick!" Blaise shouted as Draco emerged, scraping his wet silvery hair out of his eyes. "Anyway, who hates who at the moment?"

"Hermione won't talk to Ron because Lavender won't leave him alone, and he won't tell her to piss off. Ron doesn't understand what he's done wrong, but it too stubborn to ask her."

"That's just three of them?" Allegra nodded as Lavender hung from Ron's neck in the glistening water.

"Then there's Ginny and Dean -"

"The couple?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "They're not speaking." Dean was with Lavender and Ron at one end of the pool, probably trying to explain to Ron that he hadn't purposely upset his sister. Ron couldn't pay much attention anyway as Lavender was like a baby monkey, clinging to him for dear life. Meanwhile, Ginny was at the opposite end with Harry, who looked pleased to be with Ginny but not in the middle of their squabble.

"Obviously," Blaise said. "What about that Fred guy, is he still in love with you?"

Allegra's eyes wandered over to where Fred was chatting with George and Oliver in the middle of the pool, throwing a fluorescent pink beach ball between them.

"No, I don't think so," Allegra said honestly, pushing her sunglasses further up her nose. Blaise watched a group in front of him with mild interest.

"What's the deal with that Irish bloke and what's-'er-name, Peverti?"

"Pavarti." Allegra corrected with a soft laugh.

"Yes her," he grinned at himself.

"Well, apparently they like each other."

"I think that's fairly obvious." The two were getting a bit steamy at the opposite edge of the pool.

"God, I hope they're keeping it PG." Blaise laughed loudly, causing Crookshanks to jump up from where he'd been napping on the large pile of towels nearby.

"Oh, sorry Cat." Blaise patted his head lightly as Crookshanks strutted past. "And what about those three?"

He was pointing at Angelina, Katy and Neville, who were sat on the opposite side of the pool chatting near Hermione.

"Neville, you should know, Angelina," she pointed at her, "was my quidditch captain last year and Katy, the other girl, is another chaser." Blaise nodded.

"So are we all making up quidditch teams tomorrow?"

"Should be."

"What are the teams going to be?"

"Dad and I discussed it this morning. Neville, Hermione and Lavender aren't playing." Blaise frowned. "They didn't want to. Team One will be Harry as seeker, Ron as keeper, chasers: Angelina, Katy and Pavarti. Fred and Seamus are the beaters."

"So you, me and Draco on Team Two?"

"Yep. Draco's seeking, Oliver as keeper, obviously. Me, Ginny and Dean are chasers, and you and George are beating."

"So basically we're going to win."

"Yeah, but in principle the teams are equal." They grinned.

The next day they all went out to the quidditch pitch. Hermione had taken one of the many books she had found to read in the Library with her to sit nearby. Everyone seemed to be okay with the teams, and once they started playing it soon became clear that both teams were strong. Both seekers equally strong minded, and although Allegra had expected Harry to be the better of the two Draco and Blaise had been training with her dad while she was away and it seemed to be paying off. Ginny and Dean put aside their argument for the game, and George and Blaise worked well together.

Allegra's team won when George sent a bludger towards Harry when both he and Draco were going for the snitch, and threw Harry off course for the split second Draco needed.

Team One seemed to take the loss well, and all Team Two won was bragging rights. When they all landed on the grass Hermione was trying to calm down a panic stricken Cassia who was hyperventilating. Once Allegra noticed she rushed over to see what the matter was.

"Cassia, calm down, breathe." Hermione said, taking the elf by the shoulders and sitting her down on the bench.

"Cassia, what's the matter?" Allegra asked, kneeling down in front of Cassia.

"Owls. Lots of owls."

"Owls?" Hermione repeated.

"She's scared of them, the post must have come for a few of us." Allegra explained softly.

"Oh, of course, our letters must have arrived today with our school lists."

Allegra nodded. Twenty owls flying into the kitchen would be disconcerting for anyone, let along poor Cassia."

"Don't worry, I'll go and sort it." Allegra mounted her broom and took off.

She entered the kitchen cautiously. Sure enough, inside owls sat on every work top, looking annoyed by the wait. The owls ruffled their feathers impatiently as Allegra untied their letters. She fed and watered the owls that hung around and then found her letter within the pile she'd made on the breakfast bar.

Leaning onto center worktop, she opened the pale envelope and let the contents spill out. There was a clatter and she looked down onto the table to see a shining quidditch Captain's badge. "What the ...?" Allegra picked it up and checked the envelope again to check she hadn't opened Harry's by mistake.

Noise filled the room as she found another letter tucked behind the normal list of items to purchase for the coming school year. The others had got back and were looking for refreshment.

"Oh, look, our Hogwarts lists have arrived." Lavender said looking at the pile, seeing the names and recognising the usual envelope and handwriting. "Here." She began passing them out. Allegra was looking down at the letter when Angelina appeared at her side.

"You alright, Allegra?"

"... Yeah." Allegra looked up at her and she immediately saw the letter.

"Oh, well done, Ali!" She grinned. "How come you're not bouncing around?"

"Harry." Allegra replied vaguely. "Should he have this?"

"No." Angelina said bluntly, but in a pleasant tone. "I expected it would be you. Allegra, you have behaved better than him on and off the pitch, that's how they will have made the decision. He'll understand that."

Allegra grunted. Seamus sauntered over, set his eyes on the badge and shouted: "Allegra got quidditch captain!" The room cheered, and Allegra looked at Harry who was walking towards her with Hermione and Ron. He looked genuinely pleased.

"What's wrong?" He asked, seeing Allegra's expression.

"I feel this should be yours." He shook his head dismissively.

"Don't be stupid. You're perfect for it, don't worry about it." Allegra smiled and hugged him. Thank god Harry was Harry. Really, he was probably glad to not have the responsibility.

"That gives you equal status as prefects!" Hermione exclaimed happily. "You can use our special bathroom now and everything. Not that you didn't before ..."

"Wow, I remember when Charlie had one of these," Ron said taking the red badge from her fingers. "This is so cool, you're my captain - if you let me back on the team, I suppose, ha ha ..." Allegra laughed and shook her head.

"I got a letter from Molly," Mike said at dinner while holding a huge forkful of pasta near his mouth. "She said she'd heard that we'd got the lists and if you go with Ron after everyone leaves tomorrow, you, Harry and Hermione can stay and she'll take you all in the morning with Arthur and Bill."

"Oh, that works," Draco added through a mouthful. "Mum wrote and said she'd take Blaise and I that day, too."

Allegra nodded before swallowing. "Yeah, sounds like a plan."

Two days later at breakfast at the Weasley's, Molly served everyone food with barely a word from her. Something that was extremely rare, considering how much she loved to talk. She was obviously very tense. Bill, who had had a change of plan and was now staying there with Fleur, passed a bag of money across the table to Harry.

"Where's mine?" Ron demanded.

"That's already Harry's, idiot," Bill said rolling his eyes. "I got it out of his vault at work yesterday as it's taking hours for the public to get money out due to security reasons. Two days ago Arkie Philpott had a probity probe stuck up his ... well, trust me, this way's easier."

Harry smiled and dropped the bag into the inside pocket of his navy jacket. "Thanks, Bill."

Allegra and Hermione glanced at each other and rolled their eyes. They were stood a little way behind Ron and Harry, eating their cereal standing up. Hermione seemed to find this incredibly easy, whereas Allegra wasn't so lucky. She only managed to get two spoonfuls in her mouth before she spilt milk either back in the bowl, down herself or on the floor. Crookshanks had taken it upon himself to clean up the mess, and was sat by her feet looking up expectantly. Occasionally his little pink tongue would poke out to lick his lips.

"'E is always so thoughtful," Fleur purred adoringly, stroking Bill's nose from where she sat opposite Ron. Ginny mimicked vomiting into her cereal behind Fleur. Harry choked on his cornflakes as Allegra spit her spoonful onto the floor from laughing. Ron thumped Harry on the back as Crookshanks meowed a thanks and practically inhaled her spillage.

It was another murky day when they emerged from the house. A black Ministry car, that apparently only Allegra and Hermione hadn't been in before, was waiting for them in the drive.

"It's good dad can get us these again," Ron said appreciatively, stretching out his long legs as the car moved away smoothly from The Burrow. The five teenagers were sat in the roomy back seats that faced each other. Both were bench-like, but covered in luxurious black leather.

"It's only because of Harry and Ali," Ginny said.

"They've both been given top-grade security status. There will be more security meeting us at the Leaky Cauldron, Arthur was telling me about it before we set out." Hermione added.

Allegra glanced at Harry and gave him a quick smile. They'd both brought their invisibility cloaks for that reason, although they were sure Dumbledore had not given them so they could sneak off. But neither of them really fancied doing their shopping with a battalion of Aurors following them around, all of whom probably thought they could have been doing something more important than following two teenagers that had managed to get on the wrong side of You-Know-Who.

"Here we are, then." The driver said through a speaker, a surprisingly short while later, considering the muggle travel time to drive from Devon to London was about four hours.

Inside the Leaky Cauldron they were pleased to see that instead of aurors awaiting them was Hagrid.

"Harry," he said sweeping him into a hug. "Buckbeak - Witherwings, I mean - yeh should see him, Harry, he's so happy ter be back in the open air -"

"Glad he's pleased," Harry grinned. "We didn't know 'security' meant you!"

"I know, just like old times, innit? See, the Ministry wanted ter send a bunch o' aurors, but Dumbledore said I'd do," Hagrid said proudly. "Let's get goin', then - after, yeh, Molly, Arthur -"

They all moved out into the back passaged and Hagrid raised his pink umbrella and rapped a certain brick in the wall. The wall opened at once to form an archway onto a winding cobbled street. They all stepped through the archway and paused.

Diagon Alley had changed.

The usual glittering, colourful window displays were gone, covered by large Ministry posters that had been plastered over the windows. Most of the posters were purple and carried blown up versions of the security advice on the Ministry leaflets sent out at the beginning of the summer, but others were moving black and white photographs on wanted posters, mostly of known Death Eaters who were yet to be caught. Bellatrix Lestrange was sneering from the nearest shop window, and Allegra glared back. She hoped this was the closest she ever got to Bellatrix again.

Other shop windows were boarded up, including Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. A number of shabby looking stalls had sprung up at intervals up the high street. The closest one, which had been put up outside Flourish and Blotts under a striped, stained awning, had a cardboard sign pinned to its front:

 _Amulets: Effective Against Werewolves, Dementors and Inferi_

A seedy looking little wizard was rattling armfuls of silver symbols on chains at passersby.

"One for your girls, madam?" He called at Molly as they passed. "Protect their pretty necks?"

"If I were on duty ..." Mr Weasley said glaring angrily at the weedy man.

"Yes, but don't go arresting anyone now, dear, we're in a hurry," Mrs Weasley said nervously, looking at a list she'd made in her hands. "I think we'd better do Madam Malkin's first, Hermione, Ron and Allegra need new school robes, and you must do too, Harry, you've grown so much - come on, everyone -"

"Molly, it doesn't make sense for all of us to go to Madam Malkin's," Arthur said. "Why don't those four go with Hagrid, and we can go to Flourish and Blotts and get everyone's school books?"

"I don't know," Molly said anxiously, clearly torn between a desire to finish quickly and sticking together. "Hagrid, do you think -?"

"Don' fret, they'll be fine with me, Molly," Hagrid said soothingly, waving an airy hand the size of a dustbin lid. Molly still looked anxious, but let the four oldest teens separate and scurried off to Flourish and Blotts with her husband and daughter in tow.

Meanwhile, Allegra, Harry, Ron and Hermione set off for Madam Malkin's being shadowed by Hagrid.

Many of the people out shopping had the same worried look that Molly had been wearing, nobody was stood in the street chatting like they used to. Shoppers moved around in their tightly packed groups, no one shopped alone. No one recognised Allegra or Harry, mostly because no one looked up from the floor long enough to see their faces.

"Migh' be a bit of a squeeze in there with all o' us," Hagrid said as they stopped outside the shop and he peered in through the top of the window. "I'll stand guard outside, all righ'?"

Inside the little shop it appeared, at a glance, to be empty. But no sooner had the door swung shut behind them that they heard a familiar voice coming from behind a curtain.

"... not a child, in case you haven't noticed, we are perfectly capable of doing our shopping _alone_."

Someone chuckled. "Now dear, your mother's quite right, none of us are supposed to go wandering around on our own anymore, especially two young men like yourselves -"

"Watch where you're sticking that pin, will you!" Allegra laughed at the same time as she heard another familiar voice snigger.

Draco appeared from behind the curtain wearing a handsome set of black and green robes that glittered with pins from around the hem and ends of his sleeves. He strode to the mirror and examined himself. He was a little flushed and looked angrier than she'd seen him in a long time; it was a few moments before he noticed them all reflected in the mirror over his shoulder. He didn't say anything. Allegra had a feeling that he didn't want his mother to know who Allegra was, and Allegra couldn't help but agree. By the sounds of things she wouldn't be very pleased with her.

Allegra quickly whispered to the other three to not give anything away.

Draco was trying hard to not say anything at all, but with his mother there, and seemingly extremely angry, it was proving difficult. Madam Malkin appeared shortly after.

"I think this left sleeve could come up a bit, dear, let me just -'

"Ouch!" Draco bellowed, recoiling from the woman. Blaise snickered again. "Shut _up_ , Blaise!" She moved over and managed to poke him again. "Watch where you're putting your pins, woman!"

Narcissa strolled out from behind the clothes racks to look at Draco's robes. She immediately noticed the four other teens in the mirror and turned around.

"Actually, Draco," Narcissa said with a contemptuous glance at Hermione, "now I know what kind of scum shops here ... we'd do better at Twilfitt and Tatting's." Draco yanked off the robe and threw it at his mother, who immediately dropped it to the floor. He strode out of the shop, red in the face and only took the time to roll his eyes at Allegra. Narcissa followed, "Come, Blaise." Blaise followed casually, saluted the small group and said: "see you at home."

"Well, _really!_ " Madam Malkin said angrily, snatching up the fallen robe and moved the end of her wand over them like a vacuum cleaner to get rid of any dust. She was then distracted the whole time while doing Harry's, Ron's and Allegra's school robes and continually poked them with pins, which did get increasingly annoying (and painful). After she tried to sell Hermione wizards robes instead of witches. On the way out they had the feeling she was glad to see the back of them.

"Got everythin'?" Hagrid asked brightly when they reappeared. They nodded, already tired of shopping. Ron's parents arrived with Ginny only a few minutes later, all clutching heavy packages of books. Ginny looked almost half as annoyed as Draco had.

"Everyone all right?" Molly asked. "Got your robes? Right then, we can pop in at the apothecary and Eeylops on the way to Fred and George's - stick close, now ..."

Allegra didn't bother buying anything at the apothecary, but at Eeylops she bought a large box of owl treats for Midnight, and also bought another one so that visiting owls could have some. They then headed further down the street towards Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

"We really haven't got too long," Molly said as they got closer. "So we'll just have a quick look around and then back to the car. We must be close. That's ninety-two .. ninety-four ..."

" _Whoa_ ," Ron said, stopping in his tracks. Set against the dull, poster-suffocated shop fronts, Fred and George's windows hit the eye like a firework display.

Passersby looked back over their shoulders at the window display and a few rather shocked looking people had actually come to a halt. A small line of children pressed their faces up against the shop front, looking closely at the display. The left hand window was full of dazzling assortments of products, glittering and flashing. The right was covered by a large purple poster, like those of the Ministry, but instead of white or black writing it had bright yellow flashing text saying:

 _Why Are You Worrying About You-Know-Who?_

 _You SHOULD be worrying about_

 _U-No-Poo_

 _The Constipation Sensation that_ _'_ _s Gripping the Nation!_

Harry started to laugh beside Allegra, and she stood with a wry grin. Allegra heard Molly moan and turned to find her gazing ahead, dumbfounded at the poster. Her lips moved, silently mouthing the name 'U-No-Poo'.

"They'll be murdered in their beds!" she whispered.

"No they won't," Ron laughed, "this is brilliant!" Harry led the way into the shop. It was packed with customers, so much so they could barely move. It looked like the only place in Diagon Alley where anyone was smiling. The shelves were covered in different products; sweets covered a whole wall. Allegra noticed that Nosebleed Nougat was most popular, with only one box left on the shelf. There were pots full of trick wands, the cheapest merely turning into rubber chickens or underwear when waved; the most expensive beating the unwary user around the head. Quills came in all different types could be bought alone or in packs. Allegra followed Harry and Hermione through the crowd to the counter.

"'Patented Daydream Charms'..." Hermione read, looking at a display near the counter and began reading the information on the back of the box bearing a highly coloured picture of a handsome youth and swooning girl who were standing on the deck of a pirate ship. Allegra stood at her side reading the box while she read out loud. " _One simple incantation and you will enter a top-quality, highly realistic thirty-minute daydream, easy to fit into the average school lesson and virtually undetectable (side effects include vacant expression and minor drooling)_. _Not for sale to under sixteens_. You know," Hermione said, looking up at Allegra and then at Harry, "that really is extraordinary magic!"

"For that, Hermione," someone said behind them, "you can have one for free." They turned around and Fred stood before them, beaming at them with a huge grin. "Come on, you lot, I'll give you a tour. Hermione - bring your Day Dreams with you." They followed him to the back of the shop where there was a stand of card and rope tricks. "Muggle magic tricks!" Fred exclaimed happily. Hermione and Harry laughed loudly as Allegra went to have a closer look. "For freaks like dad, you know, who love Muggle stuff. It's not a big earner, but we do fairly steady business, they're great novelties ... oh, here's George ..." George came up behind Allegra and Hermione and gave them a hug.

"Is he giving you the tour?" He mocked. "Here, come through to the back, that's where we make the real money - _pocket anything, you, and you_ _'_ _ll pay in more than gallons_!" he added warningly to a small boy who hastily whipped his hand out of a tub labeled: Edible Dark Marks - They'll Make Anyone Sick!

George pushed back a translucent black curtain beside the muggle tricks and revealed a darker, less crowded room, the packaging in here was less in your face as the items in the main part of the shop.

"We've just developed this more serious line," Fred said, ushering them inside. "Funny how it happened ..."

"You wouldn't believe how many people, even people who work at the Ministry, can't do a decent Shield Charm," George said. "Course, they didn't have you teaching them, Harry."

"That's right ... well, we thought Shield Hats were a bit of a laugh. You know, challenge your mate to jinx you while wearing it and watch his face when the jinx bounces off. But the Ministry bought five-hundred for its entire supports staff! And we're still getting massive orders!"

"So we've expanded into a range of shield cloaks, gloves ..."

"... I mean, they wouldn't help much against the unforgivable curses, but for minor to moderate hexes or jinxes ..."

"And then we thought we'd get into the whole area of defense against the dark arts, because it's just a money spinner," George continued. "This is cool. Look, Instant Darkness Powder, we're importing it from Peru. Handy if you want to make a quick escape."

"And our Decoy Detonators are just walking off the shelves, look," Fred pointed at a number of strange looking black hooter type objects that were indeed, attempting to scurry out of sight. "You just drop one surreptitiously and it'll run off and make a nice loud noise out of sight, giving you a diversion if you need one."

"Wow," Allegra said, looking at what they'd done. Hermione was wearing the same expression.

"Here," George said, catching four and throwing one to each of them. A young witch with short blonde hair poked her head round the curtain; she was wearing the same magenta store jumper the twins were wearing.

"There's a customer out here looking for a joke-cauldron," she said politely.

"Right you are, Varity, I'm coming." George said promptly. "Help yourselves to anything you want, free of charge."

"We can't do that!" Harry said, who had already pulled out his money bag to pay for the decoy detonator.

"You don't pay here," Fred said firmly, waving away Harry's gold.

"But -"

"Harry, you gave us our start-up loan, we haven't forgotten," George said sternly as he left. "Take whatever you like, just remember to tell people where you got it from if they ask, that goes for the rest of you, too."

"Thank you," Hermione and Allegra said in unison. Fred led them back out into the shop but Allegra hung back a second to grab a few pots of Instant Darkness Powder. The others strolled away and left Allegra with Fred.

"The shop looks amazing, Fred."

"I know, wait till you see it at Christmas." Allegra laughed softly and the two chatted as Fred guided her to the best stuff. At a purple and pink girly-looking sction where Hermione, Ginny and George were also looking, they stopped.

"What's this?" Ginny leaned forwards and took a small pink pot off the shelf.

"Guaranteed Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher," Fred said. "Excellent on everything from boils to black heads."

Ginny kept hold of the pot in her hand and after glancing at Hermione and Allegra, passed each of them one too.

"What are those?" Ginny was pointing at a number of round balls of fluff in shades of pink and purple, and just one was a sort of mint green, all rolling around at the bottom of a cage and occasionally emitted high-pitched squeaks.

"Pygmy Puffs," George said. "Minature puffskeins, we can't breed them fast enough. What's this I hear about you having five guys on the go?"

"Whatever Ron's told you is a lie," Ginny said calmly, watching a small crowd of Pygmy Puffs crowd around her finger as she poked it through the bars.

"Aren't you going out with Dean Thomas?" George continued.

"Yes, but the last time I checked, he was one boy, not five."

"What happened to Michael Corner?"

"I dumped him. He was a bad loser. They're so cute!" Allegra bent down to admire the puffballs.

"They're fairly cuddly, yes," conceded Fred. "But you're moving through boyfriends a bit fast, aren't you?" Ginny turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. There was such a Molly-esque glare on her face that Allegra was surprised Fred didn't recoil.

"It's none of your business. And I'll thank _you_ ," she added angrily to Ron, who had just appeared at George's side with an armful of merchandise, "not to tell tales about me to these two!"

"It needed to be told."

"Mum, can I have a Pygmy Puff?" Ginny asked.

"A what?"

"Look, they're so sweet ..."

Mrs Weasley moved to look at the Pygmy Puffs next to Allegra and Ginny.

Harry, Ron and Hermione momentarily had an unimpeded view out of the window. Draco was hurrying up the street alone. As he passed the shop, he glanced over his shoulder and moved beyond the scope of the window and out of sight.

"I wonder where mummy and Blaise have got to?" Harry said frowning.

"Got Blaise to distract her and given her the slip, by the looks of it," Ron said.

"Why though?" Hermione asked.

Allegra stood up from looking at the Pygmy Puffs to find out what had taken the interest of her three best friends.

"Get under here, quick," Harry said, pulling his invisibility cloak out of his bag.

"What are you doing?" Allegra asked suspiciously.

"We just saw Malfoy walk past, alone. He looked suspicious. Get yours out." Harry said, expecting Allegra to follow.

"Okay, but I'm not coming," Allegra got it out and passed it to Hermione.

"What?" Harry said.

"I'm not coming. I don't want to spy on him; you can tell me everything when you get back." Harry looked annoyed. "Look, it gives you another cloak, and I'll cover for you while you're gone."

"Okay," Ron and Hermione both nodded and after a few moments, Harry nodded too, but didn't look happy about it.

Allegra went back to looking at the Pygmy Puffs. It sounded as though Ginny and the Puffs had won her mother round, and upon looking back at the single mint green one at the back of the cage, decided she couldn't just leave it.

"Oh, thank you, mum, thanks!" Ginny smiled.

The shop assistant from earlier, Varity, came over to help get their Pygmy Puffs and Fred came along only a few minutes later to roll his eyes at them.

"Allegra, I didn't think you were the sort." He smirked, looking at the small box she was holding with her Pygmy inside. Allegra was also holding a large shopping bag with all their freebies in.

"I got the green one," she said innocently, making big eyes at him. He laughed softly.

"The mutant."

"You wouldn't say that if you knew what I'm going to call it."

"Why?" He asked warily.

"Would you kill me if I called it Fred?" He laughed and shook his head.

"It's a complement, I guess."

"Good."

"Allegra," Molly said with a suspicious tone. "Where are your three best friends?"

"Oh, er," she peered around the shop as though looking for them. "Have you looked in the back room, behind the black curtain? Maybe they've gone back there." Molly looked at her for a moment longer before walking off in that direction.

"Sometimes I hate that she's known me long enough to treat me as her own."

Eventually, Hermione, Ron and Harry appeared from nowhere, as expected. Hermione handed Allegra her invisibility cloak and she hid it in her bag. They had quite a job persuading Molly they'd been in the shop the whole time, but at least she hadn't suspected Allegra of lying.

On the way back Ginny and Allegra cooed over their new pets.

"You don't think Midnight will try to eat him, do you?" Ginny asked, looking down into the white cardboard box at the fluffy green Pygmy.

"Maybe," Allegra bit her lip and glanced down at the cage to see how sturdy it looked.

"Malfoy went down Knockturn Alley," Harry began, obviously impatient to talk to Allegra about it. She frowned a little.

"Okay." Harry breathed out and looked frustrated. The other three in the car didn't look very interested in the subject, either.

"He was in Borgin and Burkes," he continued, annoyance in his tone. "We think he was buying something, and he was asking if they could tell him how to fix something."

"Why is that suspicious, other than because you've decided it is?"

"He said not to tell his mother."

"For all you know he could be buying her a birthday present. She's hardly the kind of woman you can go to Honeydukes for." Hermione and Ron seemed to think the passing countryside was very interesting, and when Harry glanced at them for help, they made sure they didn't catch his eye.

"But he showed Burke something," Harry said assertively, "something he was scared of." Allegra looked down at Fred the Pygmy Puff thoughtfully.

"So what do you think," Allegra looked up at him, "he's got the dark mark now?" Harry shrugged and looked away; he was getting uncomfortable.

"Harry, he was swimming with us only a few days ago," Allegra said with some outrage, "we would have seen it."

"Just if you get a chance to check," Harry mumbled with his jaw set, "I think it would be wise."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

When Allegra returned home later that afternoon, sans Harry, Hermione and any Weasleys, Draco was still in a mood. At least, she assumed so, as Blaise greeted her with a smirk.

"Thank god you're back."

"I hope you haven't been winding him up," Allegra smiled as he gave her an unexpected hug.

"No, I think he's been winding himself up." He took some of Allegra's shopping bags and started upstairs to her room.

"Why, where is he now?"

"Barricaded himself into the library as far as I know, but then he may have snuck out and be in his room by now."

"What's wrong with him, then?"

"Just his mum, and knowing he needs to go home in a week." He shrugged. "He doesn't want to go back to school much, either."

"Oh."

"Of course he can't get away from any of it," he said quickly and then sighed.

"School will be fine, I'm sure," Allegra said, but Blaise's shoulders tensed and she could tell he disagreed. "Don't you want to go back?"

"No, I don't mind that much. It's just Draco."

They were certainly making a big deal out of going back to school. Allegra hadn't even done her exams and was going to have to work hard to catch up, but she was still looking forward to getting back to everyone and she knew that once the boys went home the last week would be gone in a blink.

The problem with his mother, however, Allegra could understand. She was probably Narcissa's least favourite person at the moment, and Allegra had no desire to be friends with her, either. Had Allegra been a Slytherin, she would have been just the kind of girl Narcissa liked, but as a Gryffindor? No freaking way.

Blaise helped Allegra put her school stuff away and played with Fred the Pygmy Puff, who luckily didn't seem to be what the owls fancied for dinner. They set up his cage and got him settled.

"Can I go and find Draco, d'you think?" Allegra asked when they finished. Blaise's expression twisted a little in thought.

"Maybe. But I'll warn you, he might be horrible, so don't take it personally."

Allegra found Draco huddled in the same corner of the library she'd found him in on the first day he'd arrived.

"Draco?"

She didn't doubt what Blaise had said, she full expected him to start spitting fire but instead he smiled and patted a small bit of green beanbag next to him.

"Whatcha lookin' at?"

"Old fairy tales," he said as she tried to sit down without sitting or falling into his lap.

"I haven't read those in ages." Draco nodded in agreement. He leaned back into the beanbag and put his arm around her. "You have a bad day?"

Allegra turned the page to look at the pictures on the next page, each playing out a part of the story. Her mum and dad had read them to her all the time until she had started reading.

Draco nodded again.

"The worst. Mum and I don't get on so well at the moment," he said, his eyes focused on watching a frog turn into a cauldron. "As you probably guessed."

"Probably." Allegra smiled weakly. She turned the page again to give them something to look at.

"Well, we'll be back at school soon, then you won't have to worry about that." He just sighed deeply. Allegra was confused, but leaned into him for comfort. He seemed to relax because of it, and she turned the page.

"I don't want to forget everything _here_." He said quietly, looking up to watch Oliver, Mike and Blaise fly in the direction of the quidditch pitch. "I'd rather we all just stayed here." Allegra turned the page again and he looked down at the new picture.

"It won't be as bad as you think," she told him. He still said nothing, but pulled her closer, put his other arm around her and rested his chin on the top of her head.

What was wrong with him?

* * *

Once Draco and Blaise had gone home for the week before school, Allegra went back to the Burrow for the day. They were all sat in Fred and George's old room when Harry brought up the subject of Draco again.

"Yes, I've already agreed it was fishy, Harry," Hermione said impatiently. It appeared that he had been bringing it up frequently since their shopping trip, and now Ron and Hermione were sick of it. Hermione was sitting on the windowsill with one of her new books in her lap, and looked up grudgingly. "But haven't we agreed there could be a lot of explanations?"

"But what about when he said 'don't forget to keep _that_ one safe'?" Harry asked, and by the look of Hermione's expression, it wasn't for the first time, either. "That sounded to me like Borgin's got another one of the broken objects, and Malfoy wants both."

"You reckon?" Ron said absently.

"Yeah, I do," Harry looked around for someone to agree with him, when no one did, he carried on. "His dad's in Azkaban. Don't you think Malfoy'd want revenge?"

"No, I don't." Allegra said.

Ron looked up, "what can he do about it?"

"That's my point, I don't know!" Harry breathed, frustrated. "But he's up to something and -"

"No he's not." Allegra cut in, glancing from Hermione to Ron; Hermione's eyes looked in the direction of the conversation but she didn't look up from the book. Harry looked at her briefly and then continued "- and I think we ought to take it seriously. His father's a Death Eater and -" he broke off to stare out the window past Hermione with a look of shock. Hermione looked out the window and Allegra went back to playing with her sandals, intent to ignore Harry's campaign.

"Harry?" Hermione said anxiously when she'd observed the landscape outside. "What's wrong?"

"Your scar's not hurting again, is it?" Ron asked nervously, glancing at the two girls.

"He's a Death Eater," Harry said. "He's replaced his father as a Death Eater!"

"Harry," Allegra said sharply, "he's not a Death Eater. He didn't get on with his dad, so he's not going to be going to great lengths to be like him. Besides, he's too young, I'm sure -"

"Did you check?" Harry asked urgently, a look in his eyes that made Allegra wonder if he would ever stop.

"Check what?" she asked, annoyed.

"His arm, in the limo - you said you'd check -"

"For a dark mark?" Ron asked, and then started laughing. "He's sixteen, Harry! You think You-Know-Who would want him to join, after spending the summer at a Gryffindor's because he doesn't want to be at home?" Harry shrugged. "Plus, presumably, if he had joined, wouldn't he had kidnapped Allegra like You-Know-Who wants?"

"It seems very unlikely, Harry," Hermione said in a repressive voice. "What makes you think -?"

"In Madam Malkin's. She didn't touch him, but he yelled and jerked his arm away from her when she went to touch his sleeve. It was his left arm. He's been branded with the dark mark."

"She poked him with a pin, Harry," Allegra scoffed.

"I think he probably just wanted to get out of there, Harry," Hermione said. "You could see how pissed off he was."

"He showed Borgin something we couldn't see," Harry pressed on stubbornly. "Something that seriously scared Borgin. It was the mark, I know it -"

"If someone showed me their dark mark, I'd tell them they were a -"

"No you wouldn't, Ali," Harry snapped. Allegra got the urge to take off her sandal and lob it at him. Maybe if she mentally threw something he wouldn't know it was her. "He showed Borgin who he was dealing with," he looked up at Hermione, "you saw how seriously Borgin took him!"

The other three glanced at each other, unconvinced.

"I'm not sure, Harry ..."

"Yeah, I still don't reckon You-Know-Who would want him to join ..."

Harry growled loudly in a vent of frustration, snatched up a pile of filthy quidditch clothes and left the room.

Hermione and Ron looked down at Allegra and at each other.

"You don't think he's really a ...?" Ron asked.

"No," Allegra shook her head, although not as strongly as it would have been at the beginning of the conversation. "He's been pretty upset lately, and his relationship with his parents has deteriorated so much ... he wouldn't do that for them at the moment, I'm almost sure."

"Almost?" Hermione repeated.

"Yeah," Allegra breathed, "almost."

Allegra arrived at the Burrow early on the morning of their departure back to school, at an hour that as far as she was concerned, was still night time.

She emerged from the Weasley's fireplace sleepily and collapsed into one of the wooden chairs at the table next to Ginny. Her luggage had been sent ahead by her dad and was sitting ready to go by the front door.

"You don't ever pack lightly, do you?" Hermione said from across the table. Allegra put her head down on the table, closed her eyes and grunted at Hermione.

"Do you want some breakfast to help wake you up, Ali, dear?" Molly asked from the stove.

"Bacon sandwich?" Allegra mumbled.

"What did she say?" Molly asked Ginny, holding a wooden spoon in the air.

"Could you make her a bacon sandwich, please?" Ginny asked for her.

After inhaling the sandwich, she was much perkier by the time the Ministry car glided into the drive.

"How did we accumulate so many pets?" Molly asked rhetorically, looking at Crookshanks in his travel basket, Hedwig, Midnight, Pig and Arnold, Ginny's Pygmy Puff in their cages. Allegra had left Fred at home to be company for Cassia, who had fallen in love with him.

It took about three hours to get to the station, an hour less than usually expected, but on time for the train. This time, there was no grinning Hagrid waiting for them at the station, but instead two boring-looking bearded Aurors in dark suits. Without a word, they marched them inside. Midnight, embarrassingly, took to hooting as loudly as possible the whole way, and one of the Aurors kept glancing at Allegra accusingly.

"I can't make her stop," she stated harshly.

"Quick, quick, through the barrier," Molly said looking flustered by the pushiness of the two Aurors. "Harry had better go first with -" she looked inquiringly at one of the Aurors, who nodded briefly, seized Harry's upper arm and attempted to steer him towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten.

"I can walk, thanks," Harry said irritably, jerking his arm out of the man's grip. He pushed his trolley directly at the solid barrier, ignoring his silent companion.

"Allegra, you better wait and go last with this man," she said glancing up at the auror who nodded like the other had done. Allegra watched everyone else go until it was just the two of them left. The man started to put his arm out to guide her until she gave him a withering look that told him _if you touch me, you_ _'_ _ll regret it_. His hand quickly returned to his side.

On the platform, Harry motioned for Allegra, Hermione and Ron to follow him to the train.

"We can't, Harry," Hermione said, glancing apologetically between Harry and Allegra. "Ron and I've got to go to the prefect's carriage first and then patrol the corridors for a bit."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Harry said.

"You'd better get straight on the train, all of you, you've only got a few minutes to go," Molly said, glancing down at her little golden watch with black leather straps.

"Well, have a lovely term Ron," she gave everyone a hug and let them go. "You'd better hurry," Molly said finally after Ron and Hermione had left. "Now dear," she talked to Harry as Allegra put both hers and Harry's luggage on the train single handed. "You're staying at Allegra's this Christmas, but you'll both be coming to the Burrow for Christmas Day, it's all fixed with Mike and Professor Dumbledore, so we'll see you quite soon." Harry swiftly pushed his luggage on board just as the whistle went, and soon after the train was moving away and picked up speed and out of the station.

* * *

A/N: And that's the end of this little middle section! You can continue the story in Spinning Secrets.


End file.
